Victims of the La Loche shooting said they feel isolated and one thought of committing suicide.
Several victim statements were heard in court Wednesday morning in Meadow Lake, Sask., as the sentencing hearing continued for the teen guilty of killing four people and injuring seven others in the shooting.
READ MORE: ‘Don’t shoot me’: sentencing hearing underway in La Loche shooting
Peter Bradley, a roommate of Adam Wood who was killed in the shooting, said he had survivor’s guilt which turned to thoughts of suicide.
“Following the shooting, I was losing my will to live,” Bradley said in his victim impact statement.
“I became increasingly consumed by thoughts of suicide.”
Bradley, who was in the school at the time of the shooting, said he has lost his will to teach.
He added that he is scared of the dark, not sleeping properly and anxious of loud noises.
“The trauma I deal with on a daily basis will not go away,” Bradley said.
READ MORE: La Loche shooter could face significantly different sentences
Phyllis Longobardi, who was the assistant principal at the high school, said she was greeting students back from lunch when another group of students ran past her “with a sheer look of horror on their faces.”
An emotional Longobardi said she heard a loud bang and turned toward the door where she saw a boy buckle at his knees.
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The gunman then enter the school, turned his weapon at her, and fired.
Longobardi said that is the last thing she sees every night when she goes to bed and the first thing she sees every morning when she wakes up.
Shotgun pellets struck her in the right forearm and wrist and she now has to use her left hand to perform simple tasks.
A psychologist has told her she suffered from a severe case of PTSD, she told court.
READ MORE: The untold stories of the La Loche, Sask. school shooting
She considered Wood a son and wonders if he and Marie Janvier would be alive if she had acted differently that day.
“I often think there must have been something I should have done differently and Adam and Marie would now be alive,” Longobardi said.
“I carry the guilt and have sudden bursts of sadness that cause tears.”
Longobardi left Nova Scotia 35 years ago to begin a teaching career in La Loche, a community she ended up dedicating her life to.
“I went to school, a safe place to learn and work,” Longobardi said.
“This was not a battlefield.”
She urged the judge to sentence the teen as an adult.
“I truly want him to have life sentence,” Longobardi stated.
READ MORE: La Loche school shooting victim wants adult sentence for teen who killed 4, wounded 7
Substitute teacher Charlene Klyne said she is no longer able to work and has had to undergo dental surgery for pellets under her teeth.
She said she no longer has intimacy in her relationship, can’t see and is unable to do anything alone.
Klyne wasn’t present in court and her statement was read by a victim services representative.
FULL COVERAGE: La Loche school shooting
In an interview last week, Klyne called on the teen to be sentenced as an adult.
“I just want him to be sentenced as an adult. He was two weeks short of being an adult,” Klyne said last week in Regina.
“He looked at people in the eye and just fired. You’re an adult. It wasn’t a kid’s game. It’s not a kid’s game. You don’t shoot people for a game.”
The hearing started on Tuesday for the teen who killed two brothers at a home in La Loche in January 2016 before killing a teacher and a teacher’s aide and wounding seven others at the high school.
The teen has pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder and seven counts of attempted murder.
READ MORE: Teen pleads guilty in northern Saskatchewan school shooting
The Crown has served notice that it wants an adult sentence.
One victim impact statement read Tuesday from the La Loche Community Safety Board said the teen acted like a cold-blooded killer and said he doesn’t deserve leniency.
Court also heard in an agreed statement of facts that one of the victims told the teenage gunman that he didn’t want to die before being shot 11 times, while another victim managed to call 911 before he was killed.
Joel Senick contributed to this story; with files from The Canadian Press
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