The mystery is why, but not who did it

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This article was published 24/05/2024 (533 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Whoever knows why Brandon Richard was shot in the head outside a Manitoba Housing complex early one morning in 2022 isn’t telling.

The 28-year-old was taken to the Health Sciences Centre emergency department in a black SUV that had a flat rear tire and a blown-out rear window, around 4 a.m. on April 12. Richard died a short time later.

Police learned the vehicle was parked outside the Gilbert Park public housing complex on Burrows Avenue when it, and Richard, were shot.

In a plea bargain, Mario Nippi and Fransisco Flett, both 25-year-olds from Winnipeg, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder last week. They had been charged with first-degree murder.

This week, Court of King’s Bench Justice Richard Saull sentenced them to life without the ability to apply for parole for 12 years.

The sentence was jointly recommended by the Crown and defence.

Saull described the killing as a “cold-blooded murder” with a “virtual machine gun.” The motive remains unclear; the Crown’s case was built mostly on surveillance footage.

Winnipeg police found the owner of the vehicle, who said she had been “picking up toilet paper” when Richard was shot, prosecutor Daniel Chaput said at the sentencing hearing.

The woman directed the officers to her SUV on Elgin Avenue, then showed police the scene of the shooting, but refused to give a formal statement.

The two other men who were in the SUV, which was riddled with bullets and Richard’s blood, refused to talk.

Flett or Nippi had fired 24 rounds from a pistol that had been illegally modified to shoot automatically.

“We were never able to get at necessarily, proof of an animus or a motive,” said Chaput, noting the two men who were in the SUV are currently in custody on gun charges.

Police found 24 shell casings at the scene, which had been fired from a single gun a short distance from the victim.

Surveillance footage from the housing complex showed two people with dark clothes and masks walking in and around the complex at about 1:50 a.m. before leaving.

The same two people, agreed to be Flett and Nippi, returned at 3:11 a.m. and made their way to the residence of one of the people who was in the SUV. They hid near the suite until three people, including the victim and the driver, left the residence and went to the woman’s SUV. A fourth man left the suite carrying what looked like a long gun.

Chaput said for “whatever reason” the masked Flett and Nippi stepped out from the dark and pointed their firearms at the SUV.

Only one of the pistols fired. The Crown believes it was Flett’s, an agreed statement of facts said — but both men acted in unison. After opening fire, the two fled in a nearby vehicle.

Homicide detectives, who could not identify the suspects in the housing surveillance, reviewed video from across the North End to track their vehicle and identify Nippi at a beer vendor earlier that morning.

The murder weapon was found by police months later, during an unrelated incident, allegedly in the possession of one of Flett’s brothers, Chaput said.

He read a victim impact statement provided by the victim’s sister, Brittany Richard, in court.

It said their sister had died of a drug overdose, believed to be linked to her grief. “There have been so many losses in my family that I don’t know how to grieve properly,” said Chaput on her behalf.

Flett’s defence lawyer Ryan Amy said Flett had a troubled upbringing in the inner city. His father struggled with alcoholism and neglected him. His parents split when he was eight years old because his dad abused her.

Substance abuse and drug dealing were rife in the neighbourhood, said Amy, while his brothers have also run afoul of the law. He has had many relatives die of suicide or overdose.

Flett apologized to his victim’s family and his own family.

Nippi’s lawyer Tara Walker said his client’s mother struggled with alcohol abuse prior to his birth.

His alcoholic dad, a refugee from El Salvador, was deported due to criminal activity when Nippi was about 10, said Walker.

He grew up in the same neighbourhood and was close with Flett.

Nippi, too, apologized, saying he has found God while awaiting trial.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca