Three gunshots fired the night Colten Boushie died on Saskatchewan farm

BATTLEFORD, Sask. – The Crown says evidence will show that three shots were fired the night a 22-year-old Indigenous man was killed on a Saskatchewan farm.

Crown prosecutor Bill Burge told the trial of Gerald Stanley on Tuesday that court will hear from the farmer’s son, Sheldon, who came out running when he and his father thought someone was trying to steal a vehicle from their yard in August. 2016.

Burge told the jurors they will hear that Sheldon Stanley went inside to get his keys because a grey Ford Escape SUV was starting to drive away when it hit another vehicle in the yard.

“As he was running into the house, he heard two gunshots. When he got out of the house with his car keys, he heard another gunshot. He looked. He saw his father standing by the driver’s door of this vehicle with a gun and a clip in his hand,” Burge told court.

“Sheldon Stanley approached the vehicle and saw Colten Boushie in the driver’s seat slumped toward the steering wheel.”

Burge said there were two females in the back seat of the vehicle. Two other males had jumped out of the SUV and ran away.

Burge told the jury an autopsy found Boushie died from a gunshot wound that entered behind his left ear and exited through the side of his head.

Police recovered a Ruger-style handgun.

Stanley, who is 56, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.

RCMP Cpl. Terry Heroux was called to the Stanley farm the night of the shooting and took several photos. Some of them show the SUV, its front left wheel worn down to the rim, with the doors open and a body under blankets on the ground.

Dark blood stains can be seen on the seat and dashboard. A broken .22-calibre rifle was found next to the vehicle. Heroux said the barrel was bent but there was a bullet in the chamber and five in a clip.

Boushie, who was from the Red Pheasant First Nation, was initially a passenger when the SUV drove onto the farm near Biggar, Sask., on Aug. 9, 2016.
Supporters and family members of the accused and of the victim packed the courtroom Tuesday.

Boushie’s uncle, Alvin Baptiste, brought an eagle feather with him to the proceedings.

“I bring it in and this is for justice,” he said during a break. “This is a symbolic symbol of First Nations people.”

He said his sister Debbie Baptiste, who is Boushie’s mother, was at the courthouse but not in the courtroom for the first witness.

“She’s not sitting in the courtroom to see those graphic pictures.”

Three weeks have been put aside for the trial.