Spiritwood Incident
| Spiritwood Incident | |
|---|---|
| Location | From Spiritwood, Saskatchewan to Mildred, Saskatchewan |
| Date | Friday, July 7, 2006 (UTC−06:00) |
Attack type | Shooting |
| Deaths | 2 |
| Perpetrator | Curtis Dagenais |
The Spiritwood Incident occurred on 7 July 2006. The shooting which occurred during a police pursuit began in the town of Spiritwood, Saskatchewan, Canada, a community of about 1000 people located approximately 92 miles (148 km) northwest of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and ended near Mildred, Saskatchewan, approximately 27 kilometres away.
Incident
On July 7, 2006, two officers from the RCMP detachment in Spiritwood, Constables Robin Cameron and Marc Bourdages, responded to a complaint at a home close to the detachment. A man later identified as Curtis Dagenais fled the scene in a pickup truck. The officers followed, and the ensuing pursuit lasted 27 kilometres. During the chase, gunfire was exchanged between RCMP officers and Dagenais, resulting in both constables being shot in the head through their car windshield. Dagenais abandoned his car and escaped on foot. A massive manhunt failed to find Dagenais, who turned himself in without incident to the RCMP's Spiritwood detachment on July 18, after being hunted for twelve days.
The officers later died of their wounds, Cameron on July 15 and Bourdages early the next morning, on July 16.
Trial
During his trial, Dagenais argued he had not intentionally shot the officers. He claimed that he feared for his life and shot in blind panic out in self-defence and that the officers fired first after ramming his truck. The Crown argued that it was Dagenais who had fired first and intentionally shot the officers.
After two days of deliberations, on March 12, the jury found him guilty of two counts of first degree murder and one count of attempted murder.
On September 17, 2012, Dagenais was granted an appeal date for October 25.[1] After less than 10 minutes of deliberation the appeal was dismissed on all 3 points.[2]
See also
References
- ^ "Convicted killer Dagenais gets another day in court". Saskatoon.ctvnews.ca. Retrieved 2012-09-19.
- ^ http://www.newstalk650.com/node/80911