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Apex gunman awaits sentencing

Kirsten Murphy
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (May 21/01) - A 21-year-old Iqaluit man charged with attempted murder involving two RCMP officers in Apex last year faces sentencing Friday.

Willie Ishulutak appeared before Judge Beverly Browne in Nunavut Court of Justice last week.

Ishulutak, in custody since July, went on a shooting spree in the early hours of July 10, agitated by a failed relationship, the court heard.

He was convicted of firing more than a dozen shots; first from the ground and into a house, then from a roof at uniformed RCMP officers Const. Fraser Firth and Const. Raimo Loo.

Neither residents in the house nor the police officers were hit.

Ishulutak, then 20, was shot in the abdomen by the second of two shots fired by Const. Loo. He was flown to Ottawa for surgery.

In asking for an eight-year sentence, Crown Council Richard Meredith noted what he said was Ishulutak's reckless regard for human life.

Defense lawyer John Thompson asked for a four-to-five-year sentence.