A Nunavut man has been convicted of gunning down a rookie RCMP officer as he was responding to a report of a drunk driver in 2007.
On Thursday, the jury found Pingoatuk Kolola, 39, guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Const. Douglas Scott, who was shot dead in the small Arctic community of Kimmirut, Nunavut, more than two years ago.
APTN reporter Kent Driscoll said the technical aspects of the killing had been made clear during the two-week trial, which began late last month.
"The only thing the jury had to discuss was intent," he told Â鶹´«Ã½ Channel during a telephone interview from Iqaluit Thursday afternoon.
Driscoll said the jury spent about 24 hours over four days deliberating the case and the jurors appeared to be distressed by what they had to do.
"Each one of these jurors has a personal connection to it," Driscoll said, noting that seven of the jurors hailed from Kimmirut, which has only 400 residents in total.
Many jurors broke into tears as the verdict was delivered.
The judge told the jurors that the verdict they returned "reflects the sense of justice in your hearts and in your community."
The wait for the verdict had been hard on both families.
"It was just very long, waiting for the phone to ring, thinking about all the possibilities and the impact of that," Marla Scott, the mother of the victim, said. "As much as it was a relief when the phone rang, it was also very emotional."
"We're very pleased to hear the verdict, although it will never reverse the loss of Dougie. It is a comfort to know that the person responsible has been held accountable."
Kolola's lawyer Andy Mahar said there were no winners in the case.
"There's just no happy ending to this for anybody," he said. "A family lost a lovely young man, another family lost their father -- six kids. All for a moment of basically pointless violence."
During the trial, the jury heard that Kolola had been going through a breakup with his common-law wife in days prior to Scott's death on Nov. 5, 2007.
Witnesses testified Kolola was driving around town while intoxicated that night, with his baby son in his lap. He had allegedly been fighting with his wife.
At about 11 p.m., Scott was told by an RCMP dispatcher that there had been a complaint about a drunk driver. The young Mountie agreed to check out the reported problem.
Scott was shot in the head after catching up with Kolola's truck, which had become stuck in some construction debris near the top of a hill in Kimmirut.
Scott, a native of Brockville, Ont., was only 20 years old.
His posting in Kimmirut was the first assignment in his short policing career.
After the young RCMP officer was shot, Kolola barricaded himself in a home along with his baby.
His neighbours warned residents to stay away from Kolola and called police.
One of Kolola's long-time friends -- Kolola Pitsiulak -- testified that he was called to the house in an attempt to calm down the accused shooter.
Pitsiulak told the court that Kolola asked him to take his son out of the house.
Pitsiulak took the boy to his mother and returned to the house to talk to Kolola, where he says the accused admitted to shooting Scott.
Kolola eventually surrendered to police, about five hours after Scott was fatally shot.
After his arrest, police found a note to friends and family that Kolola had written using a crayon, asking for their forgiveness and apologizing that his son would not be able to grow up with his father.
Scott's death came less a month after another Mountie was shot dead in an Arctic community.
RCMP Const. Chris Worden was shot while responding to routine call in Hay River, N.W.T., on Oct. 6, 2007.
Like Scott, Worden was working alone at the time of his death.
Emrah Bulatci was convicted of first-degree murder in connection with Worden's death last November. He was sentenced to life in prison, but is in the process of appealing his conviction.
The deaths of two officers in short succession prompted the RCMP to change its staffing policies.
In small detachments, officers are now required to respond to calls in pairs if violence is considered to be a threat. Off-duty officers must accompany Mounties who are working alone.
With files from The Canadian Press
