Verdict handed down in shooting at B.C. RCMP detachment

A B.C. man has been found guilty of weapons offences, fleeing from police and mischief causing danger to life in connection to a daylight shooting at an RCMP detachment – but acquitted of the charge of attempted murder.

The verdict was handed down in Prince George Supreme Court Tuesday, shedding more light on what unfolded in Vanderhoof on Nov. 25, 2021, just after noon.

Paul Nicholas Russell was charged with nine crimes and convicted of six in connection to the shooting, which triggered an emergency alert and lockdown in the northern B.C. community, which has a population of roughly 4,400.

Russell's defence to the attempted murder charge, specifically, was that there was not enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the shots he fired at the detachment and RCMP vehicles were intended to kill a member or multiple members of the RCMP.

THE SHOOTING AND POLICE CHASE

Justice Francesca Marzari's decision lays out the uncontested facts at the beginning of her decision.

"Mr. Paul Nicholas Russell approached the RCMP detachment in Vanderhoof in his white pickup truck. Without getting out of his truck, he fired a rifle at two marked RCMP vehicles parked in the parking lot on the north side of the detachment," she writes.

"He then pulled his truck forward and fired twice more in the direction of a window on the west side of the detachment. He drove his truck forward again and rounded the corner of the RCMP detachment where he fired his rifle again – this time at the south, front-facing side of the detachment."

After that, the court heard, Russell drove away. But he returned five minutes later.

"He proceeded to use his truck to ram an RCMP Highway Patrol vehicle on the east side of the detachment. He shot several times into this vehicle and twice into the window on the east side of the detachment, at one point getting out of his truck to do so," according to the decision.

In all, the judge said, Russell fired at least 19 shots.

He then fled the scene and police spotted his truck 30 minutes later near his home, the decision says, adding that a police pursuit ensued.

After ramming into an RCMP cruiser that was trying to block his path, he pulled into the parking lot of a nearby business and was arrested "without further incident," the court heard. He was wearing a fedora and mirrored aviator sunglasses at the time.

THE VERDICT

One officer testified that a bullet "narrowly" missed him while he was eating lunch at his desk, prompting him to scream a command to others to drop to the floor and remain in place until the shooter left.

"In doing so, he may well have saved more than one life," the judge wrote.

However, the judge found that when Russell fired at and into the detachment windows it could not be proven that he was aiming at and trying to kill a particular person, nor was he targeting or attempting to ambush and kill members of the RCMP more generally.

"A good guess about Mr. Russell’s intentions does not meet the standard in this case. I am not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that this was Mr. Russell’s intent," Marzari wrote, explaining her finding of not guilty.

He was also found not guilty of careless storage of ammunition and dangerous driving.

Russell was convicted of reckless discharge of a firearm, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, careless use of a firearm, flight from a peace officer, mischief causing danger to life, and mischief over $5,000.

A date has not yet been set for sentencing.