Booze, rage fuelled killing of innocent woman on rural road, trial told By: Dean Pritchard Posted: 7:00 PM CST Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2022

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This article was published 28/11/2022 (757 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A drunken bar fight, damaged pride and “a whole lot of anger” were the catalysts for a fatal shooting that took the life of an innocent woman on a dark country road four years ago, a jury heard Tuesday.

Twenty-year-old Hailey Dugay died Nov. 17, 2018, after the truck she was travelling in was struck by gunfire on a gravel road near Fraserwood, 90 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

William Ryerson Comber, 23, is on trial for second-degree murder.

Prosecutors allege another man originally charged in the killing, Jesse Paluk, was standing in the middle of the road, “menacing” approaching vehicles with a rifle, but it was Comber who fired at them as they passed by.

“This is a case about how two men, William Comber and Jesse Paluk, each emboldened and energized by the other, stood on a country road, firing off their rifles into the darkness, in two different directions with two different intentions, and one disastrous outcome,” Crown attorney Kristee Logan told jurors in an opening address Tuesday.

“It’s also a case about how things are not always as they seem at first and it is only through time that the full story comes clear.”

Logan told jurors Paluk and Comber had been out hunting that day, without success, and still had their rifles with them when they and one of Comber’s friends pulled in to the Fraserwood Hotel bar later that evening.

“The bar was filled and it should have been a good night, but it wasn’t,” Logan said.

Paluk, “fuelled by too many bottles of liquid courage and a whole lot of anger,” hit his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend in the head with a beer bottle, “and the fight was on.”

Paluk was on the losing end of the fight, and received no backup from Comber and his friend, Logan said. Paluk was kicked out of the bar, which closed a short time later because of the fight.

Paluk, followed by Comber and his friend in another truck, drove off and pulled over on the side of a gravel road to relieve himself, when he saw three trucks approaching in the distance, Logan said.

“Jesse Paluk, having already been bested in that bar fight, wasn’t inclined to suffer another beating and foolishly he grabbed his hunting rifle to scare away anyone who thought they might do just that,” Logan said, “and he called out to William Comber and (his friend) that this time they needed to have his back.”

But no one in the approaching vehicles was looking for a fight, they just wanted to be on their way, Logan said.

“As each truck passed, they saw and they heard the same thing: Jesse Paluk standing in the middle of the road with a hunting rifle, angry, maybe even a little bit scared, yelling and menacing them with his rifle. And as each one of them sped off, they all heard the sound of gunfire follow them into the darkness.”

What they didn’t see, Logan alleged, was Comber, on the other side of Paluk’s truck, rifle in hand, firing at the fleeing vehicles.

“All eyes were on Jesse Paluk,” she said.

Branden Harasymko, Dugay’s boyfriend, testified they were at the bar when he saw Paluk “bottle” another man in the head. Harasymko said after the bar closed, he and Dugay and a couple of friends were driving in his truck to another friend’s house when from a distance he saw Paluk in the middle of the gravel road, holding a rifle.

“I slowed down… to almost a full stop,” Harasymko said. “He looked crazy. He had his eyes wide open… He looked scared.

“I rolled down my window, he looks at me and says: ‘Just keep going,’” he said.

Harasymko said he sped off and within seconds heard four or five gunshots in rapid succession. One of the shots penetrated the truck cab, hitting Dugay in the rear driver-side seat.

While one of his friends called 911, Harasymko called another friend who was travelling behind him and “told him not to stop because they were shooting.”

“I slowed down… to almost a full stop… He (Jesse Paluk) looked crazy. He had his eyes wide open… He looked scared… I rolled down my window, he looks at me and says: ‘Just keep going,’”–Branden Harasymko, Dugay’s boyfriend

Harasymko drove to Teulon hospital, but Dugay died before they got there, jurors heard.

Paluk, Comber and his friend drove to Comber’s home where they fled on foot after police closed in. They were arrested a short time later. Police charged Paluk with murder after finding his rifle and ammunition strewn in his truck.

“That is until something changed in time and the story of that evening was rewritten by something very small, but very significant,” Logan said.

Paluk will testify at the trial, which is set for three weeks.

“He will tell you what was going through his head that day and why he did the stupid things he did before, during and after the shooting,” Logan said.

“He will also tell you he knew better than to discharge his firearm at those fleeing trucks and that he didn’t shoot Haley Dugay, rather it was William Comber, unseen by all, who fired the fatal shot in the darkness.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca