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In a bedroom on Massey Place early on the morning of February 19, three young boys posted photos and videos of themselves holding bear spray and a sawed-off shotgun.

Moments later, a boy accidentally shot another boy in the head.

They drank stolen vodka and took turns pointing their guns. “in order to appear as gangsters,” Crown prosecutor Shaela Verma said during an agreed statement of facts Friday. during sentencing for one of the boys.

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The victim was 12 years old. At the time, his friends were 12 and 13 years old. They cannot be identified under the provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA).

The surviving boys, along with the older boy’s sister, first hid the gun in a nearby yard and blamed the shooting on someone who was not present in the house, Saskatoon Youth Court heard .

The older boy later admitted that they “messed up and the gun went off.”

His older sister told police he accidentally fired a gun. Their younger sister said she heard the gunshot, saw the victim on the ground and heard her brother say he “thought the device was in safe mode.”

She said she previously saw the gun under her sister’s bed and on her brother’s dresser. His parents, who were also at the home, provided videos and photos from their son’s phone showing the younger boy pointing the gun at the victim, according to the facts.

The boy, now 13, pleaded guilty last month to criminal negligence causing death.

In other videos, the older boy is seen loading the gun his sister had purchased. One showed him pointing the gun at the victim – who was holding the phone – 50 seconds before. police were called to the home in the 1000 block of Matheson Drive at 2:52 a.m.

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The victim died shortly afterwards. The suspected shooter remains in court on manslaughter charges.

“Any of these kids could have been the shooter, and any of them could have been the victim,” defense attorney Brian Pfefferle said, adding that the word “insane” doesn’t apply to him. does not do justice.

The victim’s mother listened to her on the phone and her two older sisters read their statements to the court. They said their family had been torn apart by the death.

“He was running around with older people who were using younger people as bait,” a sister told the court. Wiping away tears, she said her little brother grew up “too fast” but didn’t deserve what happened to him.

Lawyers proposed a two-year sentence divided into 16 months of secure detention and eight months of community supervision, in addition to the boy’s year of enhanced pretrial detention. In the case of pre-trial detention, this is the maximum authorized by the YCJA for criminal negligence causing death: three years.

Judge Lisa Watson accepted the joint submission.

Pfefferle said his client was apprehended when he was an infant and lived primarily with his aunt. They had a good relationship, but he lacked supervision and had “prolonged” access to alcohol and Xanax, Pfefferle told the court.

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He said the boy wanted to take responsibility “almost immediately”.

No one else appeared in court on his behalf and he made no statement when given the opportunity.

Verma said it was concerning that the boy told a pre-sentence report writer that “the laws are fair, but we don’t follow them” and that using weapons is “fun.”

Two months after being released on parole, he was arrested again for having two bear sprays in his waistband, Verma said. He received a nine-month probation order for the weapons offenses, which will run concurrently with a 12-month probation order that begins after his two-year sentence.

The boy needs structure and supervision, Verma said, adding that the sentence would help reduce his risk while protecting the public.

“Gun violence exists and it affects children. How many children have to die before we realize this is a problem? » asked the victim’s sister.

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