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Saskatoon man faces 14-year sentence after shooting over gang rivalry

Surveillance footage of the shooting helped identify Zennen Thomas as the shooter. Court Exhibit

Zennen Thomas, 21, has been sentenced to 14 years for the fatal shooting of Kaylum Tom, 21.

He was shot and killed on Avenue W South on Dec. 1, 2022.

The judge called the shooting “a senseless, unprovoked act of gunfire against an unarmed victim in broad daylight.”

Thomas pleaded guilty to manslaughter after originally being charged with second-degree murder.

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The agreed statement of facts details Tom and Thomas talking about their different gang affiliations before Thomas pulled out a firearm and shot him.

Saskatoon police arrested Thomas with the help of surveillance footage that captured the altercation.

While the judge took into consideration Thomas’s limited moral culpability due in part to fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, she said “it doesn’t excuse the killing.”

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Thomas was diagnosed with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder at 13 and was exposed to alcohol and drugs as a child.

At the time of the shooting, he was homeless and using meth and a known member of the so-called Terror Squad.

Thomas still faces a little more than nine years in prison with time served.

The Crown pushed for Thomas to be sentenced to 14 years, while defence argued for a lesser sentence of 12 years due to Thomas’s decreased moral culpability.

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