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Supreme Court of Canada won’t hear appeal of La Loche school shooter

Randan Fontaine killed two brothers in La Loche, Sask., before driving to the high school and killing two more people and injuring seven others in January 2016. Dayne Winter / Global News

The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear an appeal from a young man who killed four people and injured seven others in a mass shooting in northern Saskatchewan.

Randan Fontaine, now 22, was two weeks shy of turning 18 when he first killed two brothers at a home in the remote Dene community of La Loche in 2016.

A publication ban on naming Fontaine is no longer in effect as he was sentenced as an adult and has exhausted all his appeals.

Moments later he opened fire at his school, killing a teacher and a teacher’s aide and wounding other staff and students.

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Fontaine pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, second-degree murder and attempted murder and was sentenced as an adult with no chance of parole for ten years.

Saskatchewan’s Court of Appeal rejected his bid last year to be sentenced as a youth, and he wanted the Supreme Court to revisit the ruling.

His lawyer has argued the sentencing judge did not fully consider his low IQ and that he suffers from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

The Crown has said the shooting displayed sophisticated planning.

Court heard Fontaine was a quiet teen who had friends, but didn’t like school work and was attempting Grade 10 for a third time.

He was being raised by his aunt, his adoptive mother, and had no complaints about his upbringing and denied being bullied at school.

Court heard the shooter researched guns and did an online search the night before of “What does it feel like to kill someone?”

He had also been playing video games that night with Dayne Fontaine, 17, and Drayden Fontaine, 13 — Fontaine’s cousins and first two victims.

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The cousins lived across the street with the shooter’s grandparents and he visited frequently, sometimes between five to 10 times daily.

All three went to school the next morning, Jan. 22, 2016.

Court heard the shooter was a quiet young man who had some friends but didn’t like school work and was attempting Grade 10 for a third time.

At school that morning, he looked up websites on his cellphone about the infamous Columbine High School shooting in the United States.

After going home for lunch, he went to his grandparents’ house. He got a .22-calibre rifle from Dayne’s room and called Dayne down into the basement.

That’s when Randan Fontaine opened fire. Dayne ran upstairs. Fontaine kept firing, hitting Dayne in the back of the head, and Dayne fell to the floor.

Court heard Dayne tried to cover his head and told his killer he didn’t want to die. He was shot again — a total of 11 times.

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The younger brother, who was outside looking for a ride back to the school, soon after followed the shooter into the house and was shot in the head.

Fontaine next returned to school, armed with a shotgun and ammunition in his pockets.

He fired at students in the foyer of the main entrance. Then he walked into the office and shot 36-year-old teacher Adam Wood. He would later die in hospital.

As staff and students ran screaming and hid in classrooms and under desks, he shot and killed Marie Janvier, a 21-year-old teacher’s aide, who was born and raised in the community.

Soon after, RCMP found him hiding in a school washroom.

He came out and told officers, “I’m the shooter.”

With files from Global News

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