Wednesday, June 19, 2019
Serving the Hub of the North since 1960
Volume 59 • Issue 25
‘He died on my legs,’ says friend of man shot to death by an RCMP officer in 2015
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BY IAN GRAHAM
EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
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VALE ANALYZING TAILINGS DAM FOUNDATION
NEWS PAGE 3
FEMALE KING MINER COMPETITOR TELLS HER STORY LETTERS PAGE 5
ESCAPE ARTIST HEADLINING THOMPSON CANADA DAY FESTIVITIES ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT PAGE 6
Four people who were in the vehicle with Steven Campbell on the night the 39-yearold was shot to death by an RCMP officer in 2015 testified in a Thompson courtroom June 17. Their testimony came on the first day of the trial of RCMP Const. Abram Letkeman, who is charged with manslaughter and criminal negligence causing death as well as discharging a firearm causing bodily harm and operating a motor vehicle in a dangerous manner causing bodily harm. Letkeman shot and killed Campbell on an ATV trail between Princeton Drive and the Vale plant road in the early morning hours of Nov. 21, 2015 following a brief car chase. “He got shot and he died on my legs,” said Floyd Flett, who was in the passenger seat at the time Campbell was killed beside him. Floyd Flett’s testimony came after that of his sister Lori Flett, who was Campbell’s girlfriend at the time he died and had a child with him. “I remember getting hit on the side by a police vehicle,” said Lori Flett, who also testified that she told Campbell to stop while the police were chasing them and was later hit in the head by one of the bullets Letkeman fired, causing injuries requiring nerve and muscle grafts from her leg to counteract paralysis in her face. Court also heard from Lori and Floyd’s brother Marty
Occupants of car Steven Campbell was driving when he was killed testify on first day of Const. Abram Letkeman’s manslaughter trial in Thompson Flett, who said he didn’t see who was shooting because he grabbed Renita Richard, his girlfriend at the time and pushed her head down to protect her from getting shot. “I could hear like a popping noise,” said Richard, who also recalled turning to the side to look while they were being chased and seeing the lights of an RCMP cruiser before it collided with the Jeep Grand Cherokee that Campbell was driving. “I don’t know why we were being shot at in the vehicle.” All four of the vehicle’s occupants testified that they had been drinking that night and that some of them had been using cocaine while celebrating Lori Flett’s birthday. They also testified that police first tried to stop Campbell on Cree Road before he drove away onto Thompson Drive and then turned right down the road by the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba building and through construction gates blocking off an area where another building was being built at the time. The trial by judge began with the Crown playing a video shot by Cpl. Craig Glover on Nov. 21-22, 2015, which showed Campbell lying across
Thompson Citizen file photo Friends of Steven Campbell, pictured, testified June 17, the first day of Const. Abram Letkeman’s manslaughter trial for the fatal November 2015 shooting in Thompson. the front passenger seat with a bullet hole on the left side of his neck, an image that upset family members wearing shirts with Campbell’s photo and the slogan “Remembering Steven” on the front, causing one of them to exit the courtroom. Three bullet holes were also visible on the driver’s side of the windshield. Glover testified that a search using a metal detector in the area around the RCMP cruiser and the Jeep, which were about four car lengths apart on the trail, turned up 12 shell casings and one bullet. Another bullet was recovered from the steering wheel of the Jeep and
a partial bullet fragment from the console between the driver and front passenger seats. Thompson RCMP forensic identification officer Sgt. Hollie Maffenbeier, who was a corporal at the time of Campbell’s shooting, testified that the Independent Investigations Unit of Manitoba (IIU), which investigates serious incidents involving on- and off-duty police officers in the province, asked her to examine the boots that Letkeman had been wearing the night of the shooting for evidence of tire tracks in January 2016. “There was no evidence of tire tracks on them,” she
testified, though during cross-examination she said that didn’t mean that they definitely hadn’t come into contact with a tire. She also testified about finding a plastic bag with white powder in it under the emergency brake. “It was packaged in a way that would be consistent with some sort of illicit drug,” said Maffenbeier, though she did not know what it was or if it had been tested. Another forensic identification services member working in Thompson in 2015, Darren Martin, testified that he took photos of Letkeman’s foot shortly after the shooting. “There was no external injury I could see that was obvious,” said Martin, who did not do any further investigation of the shooting because he and Letkeman had worked together at times when Martin was a patrol member and he felt that there might be a perception of bias. The Crown is expected to conclude its case against Letkeman June 25 following testimony from a use of force expert. The trial is expected to conclude June 27 or June 28 though a verdict will not come until sometime later in the summer.
Robberies and assaults with weapons up significantly this year over last, public safety committee hears Arrests made in relation to recent thefts and incidents involving machetes BY IAN GRAHAM
EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
Assaults with weapons and robberies are up significantly in 2019 from where they were in 2018, Thompson RCMP Staff Sgt. Chris Hastie told the public safety committee members at their June 13 meeting. There have been 156 assaults with weapons reported in 2019 compared to 111 in the same timeframe last year, while yearto-date robberies have jumped from 12 in 2018 and 15 in 2017
to 25 so far in 2019. “There is a bit of an increase in that sort of crime,” Hastie said. “We have been solving a lot of the recent robberies in town.” Thompson RCMP recently arrested a youth from Thompson in relation to a June 4 incident in Juniper in which a 14-year-old was chased by a group of youth armed with machetes. To do so, they had to obtain a Feeney warrant, which a 2017 blog post by Stuart O’Connell of Donich Law Professional Corporation says re-
quires police to satisfy a judicial officer that a person who has or is about to commit an indictable offence is in a residence. Hastie said the warrant was required because the suspect’s family was not willing to allow police to enter the home to arrest the youth. Arrests have also been made regarding a recent theft of machetes and an assault near the Deerwood splash pad. A 12-yearold girl carrying a machete was arrested near the bowling alley June 11.
“This is what we’re dealing with,” Hastie said. RCMP are still investigating three May 30 stabbings near Walmart, the homeless shelter and on a trail near Princeton Towers. The month of May saw more sexual assaults, break-and-enters and sexual assaults reported to Thompson RCMP than in the same month a year ago, but assaults were slightly down from May 2018. Sexual assaults went from four in May of last year to nine this
year, while break-and-enters doubled from five to 10 and thefts were at 50 compared to 34 in May 2018. May saw 103 assaults reported to police compared to 115 in 2018. “Assaults are down,” Hastie said. “Shoplifting is up a bit.” Hastie attributed the rise in shoplifting reports to the diligence of City Centre Mall security guards. The public safety committee doesn’t meet again until September.