Montreal Lake shooting victim found outside home: Court

He then went over and shook the victim, who was on his side next to the home of Miranda Bird. Milton called the health centre nurses, who in turn called police. Milton recognized the victim as a distant relative and friend.

While he was waiting, he saw a spent rifle cartridge about five metres away from the victim and noticed they were wearing a black backpack with both straps over his shoulders. The victim was also wearing gloves, a COVID-19 mask, a black hoodie and jeans.

Milton told the court he did not see any weapons lying around.

A member of the RCMP Forensic Identification Unit (FIU) who examined the scene said the backpack, which was zipped shut and contained only some clothes, a toothbrush, cologne and Old Spice body wash.

He noted the cartridge casing was a Winchester Super .303 British variation and that there was a bullet hole in the siding of the home. A bullet was later found buried in the frame of a kitchen drawer inside the house.

The third witness was Gregory McDonald, who testified that he was woken from sleep the previous night by his partner. The home they were in was almost directly across the street, with a full view of Miranda Bird’s home.

McDonald initially thought he heard a bang from the backyard that might have been a firecracker, so he opened the back door. When he did, a second bang went off, which he determined was likely from a rifle and coming from behind him, where Miranda’s house would be.

McDonald testified that he heard two male voices coming from that area and that while he could not make out all their words, he could hear some of what they said.

“He wanted to get out of there right away,” McDonald testified.

He did not recognize the voice but then saw a pickup that had been parked beside Miranda’s home doing a multipoint turn before driving off. The vehicle was a single-cab, older-model pickup and may have been a Ford. There were two or three males inside the vehicle and another in the box of the truck.

Before adjourning for the day, court heard from Arthur Henderson, who described his work as a carpenter, jack of all trades, mechanic, and sometimes trapper. He had borrowed a rifle from a family member to go out on his trapline but could not remember whether it was a .303, .30-30 or .30-06.

Along with his other trapping gear, the rifle was placed in his pickup in preparation for leaving for the trapline, but was stolen overnight. Henderson said he could not recall the exact date of the theft or if the ammunition he had in the vehicle was also gone.

In the coming days, the Crown will call several more police officers to testify, along with Lacey Bird, Julian Ganton, and Justice Bird.

Ganton was co-accused with Naytowhow and convicted of being an accessory after the fact. He received a sentence of time served last fall.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

by Susan McNeil

Montreal Lake shooting victim found outside home: Court

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