Man sentenced for vicious assault on gang underling

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This article was published 31/03/2022 (1441 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man who recorded his “hideous” attack on a gang underling and posted the video on Facebook, has been sentenced to three years in custody in a case a judge said highlights the lack of rehabilitative resources for Indigenous offenders.

Brandon Sumner, 23, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault for the April 2020 attack. Provincial court Judge Cynthia Devine sentenced Sumner to an additional one year in custody for an unrelated attack on a stranger 18 days earlier.

“This case was particularly difficult to decide because the particular type of secure residential facilities and resources that are designed to heal young Indigenous offenders who are also struggling with (fetal alcohol spectrum disorder), addictions, the intergenerational trauma leading to violence and joining gangs, do not exist,” Devine said in a written decision released this week.

“Specialized resources… to address intergenerational traumas caused by colonialism and residential schools are required in this case to protect society and rehabilitate Mr. Sumner,” Devine said.

Sumner can’t live with his former foster parents because they are caring for young children, but sending him to the federal penitentiary would further entrench his connection to gangs, Devine said.

The Crown had urged Devine to sentence Sumner to six years in prison. In sentencing Sumner to four years, Devine gave him credit of 1 1/2 days for every day he has already served, allowing him to remain in the provincial jail system for the remaining 15 months of his sentence.

Sumner’s attack on his fellow gang member and “supposed friend” was “sickening to watch” and “demonstrated a lack of humanity,” Devine said.

Sumner told police the victim stole his girlfriend’s laptop computer and he became “blackout mad” and attacked him. But Sumner’s cellphone video of the attack revealed he was angry at the victim for making money outside of proper gang channels — money that he didn’t share with Sumner and the gang.

The video shows the victim on his back on the floor of an empty room as Sumner kicks and punches him repeatedly in the face and head. Sumner continues the attack after the man loses consciousness.

“I thought you were a bro,” Sumner tells the man. “The only way you’re going to be making money is through me.”

Hours later, Sumner forced the man into another room at knifepoint and called for an ambulance. He told paramedics the victim had been attacked by strangers.

The man was treated at hospital for a broken nose, jaw and orbital bone, and internal bleeding.

Sumner posted the assault video on Facebook two weeks later. “He also showed it to higher ups in the gang, presumably to prove his loyalty and worth,” Devine said.

“There was significant chatter about the video on Facebook, with Mr. Sumner weighing in,” she said. “He expressed no remorse. Instead, he justified his actions, continued to blame the victim and called him down. Others in the chat are horrified at the violence.”

Two weeks before that attack, Sumner and three other men were arrested after they tried to force their way into the home of a Burmese immigrant they had chased. After Sumner kicked in the door, a co-accused sprayed a can of bear mace into the victim’s face. Family members were able to repel the attackers.

“It was a Sunday afternoon and the house was full of family, friends, and children visiting,” Devine said. “The break-in would have been terrifying for the people in that house… clearly the offence was motivated by racism.”

Sumner’s personal history is marked by losses, abuses and challenges common to many Indigenous offenders. He was seized by Child and Family Services when he was less than a month old and spent time in 16 foster placements by the time he was eight.

Sumner found stability in a loving foster placement for the balance of his childhood, and excelled on the basketball court and dance floor.

All that began to unravel in his late teens, Devine said.

Sumner began having trouble in school and was diagnosed with FASD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and oppositional defiance disorder. Eventually he was expelled. After he turned 18, no longer in school and with no job, he was forced out of extended CFS care, moved out on his own, and quickly descended into a life of drugs and gangs.

Sumner’s responsibility, or “moral culpability,” for his crimes is high, “but can only be fully understood and appreciated by taking into consideration his circumstances as an Indigenous person and his FASD and mental health diagnosis,” Devine said.

“His deteriorating behaviour in his late teens drifting into drugs, crime and a gang lifestyle were prescient.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca