‘Yeah, yeah’: alleged teen Canada Day shooters make court appearances By: Dean Pritchard Posted: 6:36 PM CDT Monday, Jul. 6, 2020

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/07/2020 (1537 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A second teen arrested following a spate of Winnipeg shootings last week — one of them fatal — made his first court appearance Monday, with a prosecutor telling a judge the Crown will be seeking an adult sentence, if convicted.

The 15-year-old boy was arrested July 3 — the same day a 14-year-old male co-accused made his first court appearance at the Manitoba Youth Centre.

Both teens are charged with first-degree murder in the Canada Day shooting death of 27-year-old Danielle Cote, and attempted murder and aggravated assault in connection to two more shootings July 1-2 that injured three people.

The minimum sentence for a youth convicted as an adult of first-degree murder is life in prison, with no chance of parole for seven years.

The 15-year-old, appearing by video from the Winnipeg Police Service downtown central processing unit, appeared to smirk occasionally as a court clerk read out the charges against him. Later, he stretched out in his chair and fiddled with his handcuffs as Crown attorney David Burland read out a list of people he was to have no contact with, including alleged victims and co-accused.

The teen answered with a simple “Yes,” when provincial court Judge Julie Frederickson asked if he understood the no-contact instructions.

No parents or family members were present in court on the teen’s behalf. His next court date is Aug. 14.

“We are going to need disclosure; I anticipate we are going to need another month for that to happen,” the boy’s lawyer, Josh Anstett, told Frederickson.

The 14-year-old co-accused, currently in quarantine at Manitoba Youth Centre, appeared in court briefly Monday via video, with his lawyer, Hillarie Tasche, quickly adjourning the case to July 8 to receive disclosure.

“We don’t think anything substantial will happen that day,” Tasche said, adding any future possible bail hearing will require a special sitting.

The teen, dressed in a green T-shirt and pants, responded with an impatient, “Yeah, yeah,” when asked if he understood what was happening in court.

City police have said they don’t believe the co-accused knew Cote nor the other shooting victims.

Police say the first incident occurred at approximately 2:30 a.m. July 1, when an injured 44-year-old man was found on Balmoral Street, near Cumberland Avenue, after he had been struck by a vehicle. Police later learned the man had been shot prior to being hit by the car.

Less than an hour later, a 17-year-old girl and a male were shot at on the 100 block of Isabel Street. The pair were not injured and did not initially report the shooting, police said. The 14-year-old accused is the lone suspect in that incident.

At 3:15 a.m., Cote and a 18-year-old male cousin were shot while walking on the 400 block of Flora Avenue. Cote died at the scene; her cousin was treated for injuries in hospital.

On July 2, at approximately 12:30 a.m., a 40-year-old man was shot at The Forks and another man was stabbed. The 40-year-old shooting victim was in hospital in stable condition.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca

Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter

Someone once said a journalist is just a reporter in a good suit. Dean Pritchard doesn’t own a good suit. But he knows a good lawsuit.

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