Second guilty in connection with Onanole shooting
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/08/2019 (1689 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
BRANDON — A second man has pleaded guilty in relation to the 2018 shooting of an RCMP officer near Onanole.
Tommy Edward Beaulieu, 22, pleaded guilty in Brandon provincial court Monday to robbery with violence; two counts of aggravated assault against a peace officer; and break, enter and theft of a firearm.
Beaulieu was part of a series of incidents put into motion Aug. 29, 2018, when he and a co-offender, Therae Racette-Beaulieu, broke into a property near Portage la Prairie, Crown attorney Kaley Tschetter said.
When confronted by the property owner, Beaulieu hit him with a rake three times, causing an injury to the man’s face and a laceration to his elbow.
Beaulieu fled on a stolen all-terrain vehicle, while Racette-Beaulieu jumped into the victim’s truck and sped off.
The two reconvened and picked up two other co-accused, Tschetter said, moving on as a group to break into two more properties near Onanole.
“During the course of the residential break and enter, four secured firearms and associated ammunition were stolen, including a camouflaged semi-automatic shotgun that was later used in the shooting of Cpl. (Graeme) Kingdon,” Tschetter said.
After loading up the truck with stolen items, the group headed down the road where they were met by RCMP — Kingdon in one cruiser and Const. Mitch Thompson in another — responding to the report of a break and enter in progress.
Kingdon forced the truck off the road and into a ditch where it became stuck, Tschetter said. Three of the accused, including Beaulieu, jumped out of the vehicle and fled with Thompson in pursuit.
When Kingdon approached the vehicle, Racette-Beaulieu shot him from a nearby hill with a stolen 12-gauge shotgun, hitting him in the back of the head.
As Thompson tried to secure his injured partner, Racette-Beaulieu repositioned himself and fired another two rounds at the officers, hitting the front of the truck and narrowly missing them. In the meantime, Beaulieu stole another truck from a nearby property and fled to Neepawa. He was arrested the following day after a lengthy standoff with RCMP.
Defence lawyer Rishi Bharath ordered a pre-sentence report for Beaulieu, which will include a psychiatric assessment.
Counsel is expected to reconvene in September to set a date for sentencing.
— Brandon Sun