SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A 38-year-old Tuktoyaktuk man has been sentenced to house arrest after firing his shotgun during an argument over a bottle of liquor.
Eddie Gruben Lucas was handed a 14-month conditional sentence in Yellowknife territorial court last week after pleading guilty to one count of careless use of a firearm and one count of possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, stemming from an incident in the early evening of Oct. 28, 2012. Lucas was at a residence in Tuktoyaktuk when he left and returned with a shotgun. An argument ensued about a bottle of liquor, according to an agreed statement of facts. The shotgun discharged and hit the ceiling. Lucas then left, taking the shotgun with him.
When RCMP attended the scene, they found one spent shotgun shell from a Squires Bingham 12-gauge shotgun on the front doorstep and one on the floor in the house. The father of three was placed in custody after the incident where he remained until last week.
Defence lawyer Nikolaus Homberg said Lucas has traditional skills and shares his bounty of harvest from hunting with members of the community. He said Lucas was working full time and has a job he can go back to as a heavy equipment operator and that his family of a wife and three children is finding it difficult to make ends meet since the incident.
He also said Lucas went to residential school where suffered from abuse and since then has lived an alcoholic and violent lifestyle.
"He knows that something much worse could have happened here," said Homberg.
Lucas read from a letter stating he had made the wrong choices. "I wasn't trying to hurt anyone but myself. I want to become a better person for my community and my children," he said.
During her sentencing on Feb. 27, Judge Bernadette Schmaltz said the fact that this incident occurred over a bottle of liquor was "appalling."
"Nobody wants to live in a community where this happens," she said.
She said Lucas has to think of his children and what he's going to tell his son next time they are out hunting together and Lucas cannot carry or use a firearm due to his conditional sentence order.
Schmaltz said Lucas is under house arrest at either his wife's residence or his mother's residence for nine months. He cannot leave the residences except to go to work, counselling or for an emergency and he must abstain from alcohol and drugs. He will be on a curfew for the last five months of his sentence, having to be in either residence from 10 p.m. until 7 a.m. and he cannot possess a firearm. He will then be on probation for two years where he won't be able to keep a firearm in his residence.
