'It should have been me in the ground,' Sask. man says at manslaughter sentencing
CBC
Clayton Mandes Junior says it should have been him who died, instead of the friend he accidentally shot.
"It should have been me in the ground," he said to the family of Denzel Cameron, who died on Sept. 14, 2024, in a home at Beardy's and Okemasis Cree Nation.
"I'm the one that should have known not to play with a gun," he said. "I truly, I am sorry that I've taken your son, brother, father figure from you guys."
Mandes, 22, spoke last week during his sentencing hearing at the provincial court circuit point at Beardy's, about 80 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon. He had pleaded guilty to manslaughter for killing Cameron, 28.
Court heard they were socializing and drinking, and at one point Cameron left and returned with a sawed-off .22, because the woman who lived in the house had received messages from someone threatening to shoot up the house.
Cameron and Mandes were goofing around in the kitchen, pretending to shoot themselves and each other with the gun, which was unloaded. But then Cameron put a bullet in the gun, which Mandes said he didn't realize, and the next time he pointed the gun and pulled the trigger, the gun went off and Cameron fell to the ground.
He had been shot in the head, and he died.
During the sentencing, Crown prosecutor David Piche played the police statements given by two of the other people in the home, including Cameron's girlfriend. She said she was in the kitchen with the two men and told them, "You guys are dumb," before heading out the door.
Just a few seconds later, she heard the gunsho. She ran back inside and saw Cameron on the floor and Mandes standing there "looking shocked," she said.
"I asked him, I was like, 'What did you do?' and he's just like looking there, real scared."
Mandes ran out the door without his shoes, and was arrested shortly after.
The Crown and defence jointly submitted that Mandes should receive the mandatory minimum sentence for manslaughter with a firearm, which is four years in prison.
"This, I think, is fairly characterized as an extremely tragic situation that arose during a jovial get-together among people who were socializing and merrymaking," Piche said.
"It's obvious no one wanted this shooting to happen or there was any intention to kill here."
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