‘She begged them… they did it anyway’

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This article was published 08/12/2021 (1416 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A woman who was shot down during a Canada Day shooting spree had told her teenage attackers she was pregnant and begged them not to kill her, but “they did it anyway,” a judge was told Tuesday.

Danielle Cote, 27, was one of four people allegedly shot by a 14-year-old boy and 15-year-old boy in less than 24 hours, July 1-2, 2020. Cote was the only one who died.

The younger accused, who is now 15, is on trial, charged with one count of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted murder and one count each of discharging a firearm with intent and possession of a firearm while prohibited.

A 21-year-old woman testified Tuesday she was driving her then-boyfriend and the two accused teens to The Forks late Canada Day when the younger accused, whom she had only met a few days earlier, made a startling disclosure.

“He was talking about the pregnant lady they shot,” said the woman, who the Free Press won’t identify out of safety concerns.

“He said they pointed the gun at her and she begged them not to (shoot her) because she was pregnant, but they did it anyway,” the woman said.

The teens and her boyfriend laughed as they talked about the shooting, she testified.

Earlier in the trial, court heard testimony Cote and her cousin Keanu Ducharme were walking along Flora Avenue early in the morning when two teens threatened Ducharme with a rifle and demanded his property.

Ducharme told court that after one of the teens shot him in the face, one of the them said: “We got to kill her, too.” Then, he heard another shot.

“I was really uncomfortable,” the woman testifying Tuesday told court. “If they wouldn’t think twice about shooting a pregnant lady, what would they do to me? They didn’t know me.”

The woman said when she and her boyfriend picked up the two accused teens earlier, the older one had a rifle. When the woman told them she didn’t want the weapon in the car, they first told her it didn’t work. Then they forcefully refused her request to get rid of it.

The woman said she dropped the three males off at The Forks, but they returned to the car a short time later, saying they had seen a man they’d had “a beef” with earlier that day.

That man, Gordon McGinty, testified Monday he discharged a can of bear spray at a group of young people, including the younger accused, during a dispute outside a Kennedy Street apartment block.

The woman said she drove away from The Forks when the teens and her boyfriend starting discussing a plan to attack the man, but she returned after they threatened her. The woman said her boyfriend stayed with her in the car as the two teens left the car armed with the rifle.

McGinty testified Monday he was sitting on the grass near the outdoor stage area when the younger accused tapped a rifle to his head and shot him through his left ear.

Testimony earlier in the trial suggested family members believed Cote was pregnant, but prosecutors told court that was not true.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca