Saskatoon 13-year-old pleads guilty for role in fatal shooting of 12-year-old friend

Dan Zakreski · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 02, 2025 12:20 PM EDT | Last Updated: 25 minutes ago

A 13-year-old Saskatoon lad progressive successful the fatal shooting of his 12-year-old person successful 2024 has pleaded blameworthy to transgression negligence causing death.

It happened successful a location connected Matheson Drive on Feb. 19, 2024, when 3 boys, 2 12 and 1 13, were drinking vodka and passing astir a loaded sawed-off .22 rifle.

The weapon went off, sidesplitting 1 of the 12-year-olds. The 2 different boys were charged with manslaughter, but the surviving 12-year-old pleaded blameworthy to criminal negligence causing decease past twelvemonth and was sentenced to stay successful custody for 16 months, followed by 8 months of aggravated supervision successful the assemblage and past 12 months probation.

The 13-year-old is scheduled to beryllium backmost successful tribunal successful July for sentencing.

"Nobody wanted this to happen. There was nary plan, it was kids making mediocre decisions, playing with thing they shouldn't beryllium playing with and it went disconnected and killed somebody," Blaine Beaven, the boy's lawyer, said Monday successful an interview.

"Obviously they're playing with a gun, they ne'er should be, children ne'er should beryllium playing with a weapon and radical who are intoxicated should ne'er beryllium utilizing firearms. And 1 of them ended up getting shot."

• 12-year-old Saskatoon lad sentenced for relation successful shooting decease of 12-year-old friend

An agreed connection of facts was presented astatine the 12-year-old's sentencing.

It said the boys were successful a chamber wrong of the house connected Matheson Drive. They had carnivore spray and a sawed-off rifle. All three were posing, taking photographs and videos with the firearm successful an effort to look arsenic though they were gangsters.

"As a portion of the investigation, officers seized cellphones belonging to [the boys]. [Saskatoon police] analyzed the telephone information that was extracted from the cellphones. Upon reappraisal of the videos and photographs taken from that night, you spot [the boys] had been drinking from a 26 oz vessel of Absolut vodka implicit a play of astir 3 to three-and-a-half hours," it said.

"During this clip you spot [the boys] instrumentality turns pointing the firearm and carnivore spray astatine 1 another. [The 13-year-old] is seen unloading and loading ammunition into the firearm."

Time codification connected the last video viewed by constabulary showed it was recorded less than a infinitesimal earlier the shooting, the facts said.