Jennifer McPhee
Northern News Services

Pond Inlet (Apr 15/02) - Rueben Sangoya is facing a five-year sentence for a shooting spree in Pond Inlet.

On Wednesday, a 10-year firearms prohibition was added to his sentence by Justice Robert Kilpatrick of the Nunavut Court of Justice.

After a fight with his girlfriend on July 20 last year, Sangoya, 20, borrowed two guns and shot at the windows and doors of two RCMP houses and the detachment.

One of the shots narrowly missed a guard.

Over the next two hours, he moved through the community, dislodging 35 shots in total, pointing his gun at a 15-year-old and firing over his head, aiming at another youth and killing a dog.

Sangoya then fired at two police officers. One shot penetrated the bedroom of a house where a six-year-old child was playing.

Eventually, after talking with a family member, Sangoya surrendered his gun and went to his grandmother's house, where he was arrested.

Kilpatrick commended Sangoya for pleading guilty and waiving a preliminary hearing, actions "consistent with some remorse.

Crown lawyer Christine Gagnon asked for a four- to five-year sentence.

But defence lawyer Sue Cooper argued for a reduced sentence because of Sangoya's young age, absence of adult record and potential for rehabilitation.

It was Sangoya's first adult offence, but he was convicted twice in youth court in 1996 and 1997 for firearms offenses.

Kilpatrick decided the spree was planned and deliberate and could not be dismissed as a momentary lapse of judgment or crime of passion.

He said Sangoya understood the seriousness of his actions, and the risk to human life, and noted he is an experienced hunter.

"I have no doubt that he understood the rifle's capacity to cripple, maim and kill its target. Any hunter would know this."

Kilpatrick called the spree a deliberate attack on authority.

Sentences for young people are usually short, but Kilpatrick said this case was exceptional.

"No one here is saying you are a bad person," he told Sangoya. "You are fundamentally a good person. You come from a good family and I suspect you have a tremendous amount of unrealized potential. You don't need to be here."

But, the judge told him, "this case is bigger than just Reuben. This involves bigger principles. It involves other people."

He then gave Sangoya the minimum mandatory sentence for endangering life, a two-year concurrent sentence for pointing a firearm and a one-year consecutive sentence for mischief.

Kilpatrick recommended that Sangoya serve his sentence at the Fenbrook Institution in Gravenhurst, Ont., where there is an inmate counselling program for Inuit and run by Inuit.