The defence lawyer for a small-time drug dealer who sold the gun used to kill two Edmonton police officers argued Thursday that the Crown is making his client a scapegoat in an attempt to vastly expand criminal liability for gun violence.
Dennis Okeymow, 21, is on trial for homicide charges related to the March 2023 shooting deaths of Edmonton police constables Travis Jordan and Brett Ryan. The actual shooter, 16-year-old Roman Shewchuk, killed himself after the ambush.
Crown seeks liability for gun sale
Prosecutor Adam Garrett told Court of King's Bench Justice John Little during closing arguments that Okeymow should be held criminally responsible for the deaths because he sold the firearm to a minor. Even if Okeymow did not know about Shewchuk's mental health issues, including a hospitalization for schizophrenia, Garrett argued the sale was inherently dangerous.
"Anyone who sells a firearm has a duty to be reasonably sure the sale is safe, or at least not dangerous," Garrett said. He added that selling a gun to a 16-year-old, who legally could not purchase a firearm, carries foreseeable risks.
Defence calls for restraint
Defence lawyer Jamil Sawani accused the Crown of trying to open the "floodgates" by holding firearms traffickers liable for any subsequent use of the weapon. He argued that such a sweeping change should come from Parliament, not the courts.
Sawani described Okeymow as an "easy scapegoat" in a society seeking someone to blame for a tragedy where the perpetrator is dead. "The Crown proposes Mr. Okeymow takes his place as an effigy to be burned in this public square," he said.
Okeymow, who is Indigenous, was 18 at the time of the offences. Sawani suggested it was inappropriate to use a disadvantaged Indigenous youth as a test case for expanding criminal liability.
Trial details
Okeymow pleaded guilty at the start of the trial to selling the firearm to Shewchuk, along with cannabis and other drugs. The two exchanged hundreds of text messages and met about two dozen times, primarily for drug transactions.
In early 2023, Shewchuk asked for a handgun, but Okeymow sold him a .22-calibre semi-automatic rifle modeled on a Second World War German assault rifle, along with 80 rounds of ammunition, for $2,500.
Shewchuk used the gun in a multi-day rampage, randomly shooting a Pizza Hut clerk and strangling his mother on March 16, 2023. When his mother fled and called police, Shewchuk ambushed the responding officers, firing 10 rounds before killing himself.
Justice John Little is expected to deliver his verdict at a later date.
