Lawyer of shooting victim files suit against Attorney General, RCMP, Mountie
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/02/2016 (2967 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A lawyer representing 16-year-old shooting victim Calli Vanderaa and her single father, Corey, filed suit Friday against the Attorney General of Canada, the RCMP and the Mountie whose semi-automatic pistol was used in the attack last October.
The statement of claim, prepared by the family’s lawyer, Robert Tapper, asks for unspecified general, punitive, aggravated and special damages as a result of “life threatening and major injuries” that also left the Winnipeg High School girl with post-traumatic stress disorder, according the suit.
While Calli finally returned to school after the Christmas break, the suit contends she continues to suffer from both the psychological and physiological consequences of the incident.
“She will suffer for a lifetime,” the suit says.
The shooting occurred Oct. 23 in the parking lot of a Windsor Park convenience store Calli and some friends had stopped at before the shooting began by an assailant she had never seen before.
The single bullet, that struck Calli as she sat in a car, “hiding,” damaged her lung, ribs, spleen and colon.
The suit states the firearm was stolen by the shooter earlier that evening from an RCMP cruiser that had been parked on a street in front of the southeast Winnipeg residence of the Mountie named as a defendant in the action, Sgt. Chris McCuen.
It also alleges that McCuen left his police belt, “replete with firearm, taser and baton, visible on the back seat of the car.”
In leaving it there in an insecure manner, the suit further states, McCuen “violated police policy, common sense and safety regulations.”
It specifically sites the “protection of the firearm and its securing is fundamental to any trained officer,” the statement says, “and is so basic that it must have been that the defendant McCuen was not operating in any thoughtful manner.”
It further states by not following police policy on the safe storage of firearms his actions were willful, reckless, dangerous and negligent.
Two men, Matthew Wilfred McKay, 22, and Matthew Andrew Miles, 25, face numerous charges. A statement of defence has yet to be filed.
Gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca
History
Updated on Friday, February 12, 2016 8:10 PM CST: Adds information on defendants.
Updated on Friday, February 12, 2016 10:01 PM CST: Removes ability to comment.