A Nova Scotia man was sentenced in Truro Provincial Court Thursday for his role in a random shooting in March that prompted an emergency alert.
Thankfully, Jeffrey Elmer Moxsom’s “multiple rounds” of bullets didn’t injure anyone in the Onslow, N.S. area in the early morning hours of March 3. But in firing “pot shots,” as described by his lawyer, he did hit a vehicle travelling on the highway.
Moxsom told the court he was high on cocaine and drunk on alcohol at the time of the shooting.
The provincial court judge said Moxsom was on a “cocaine, alcohol-fuelled binge of danger” — and was lucky he didn’t kill someone.
“Had that bullet gone a little higher,” the judge said, “it’s almost right in line with the driver’s head.”
Moxsom apologized to everyone involved and noted that he was setting a poor example for his children.
He initially faced 21 charges but previously pleaded guilty to four firearms offences; the “most serious perhaps, is possessing a firearm while on a lifetime firearms prohibition,” said Crown prosecutor Thomas Kayter.
Moxsom was sentenced to four and a half years in prison.
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‘Random victim’ is brother of mass shooting victim
At the time, RCMP said officers responded to a report just before 12:30 a.m. “that a vehicle travelling on Hwy. 2 in Central Onslow had been shot at with what was believed to be paintballs.”
“The victim, who was not injured in the incident, observed a vehicle heading slowly in the opposite direction and slowed down to see if the vehicle travelling slowly needed assistance,” the force said in a news release.
“The victim then heard what they believed were paintball gunshots being fired at their vehicle. It was later determined that the victim’s vehicle had suffered damage from a bullet.”
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The vehicle that was struck by Moxsom’s gunfire was driven by Richard Roode, the brother of Kristen Beaton. Beaton died nearly three years earlier in the worst mass shooting in Canadian history, which began in nearby Portapique, N.S.
“Richard Roode was a random victim,” said Kayter in court.
“Random (victim) or not, what wasn’t random was (Moxsom’s) intention to pull a trigger on a firearm at a member of the public in a motor vehicle, which is an outrageous act,” he said in an interview afterwards.
Better communication about critical calls
Staff Sgt. Kevin Dunlevy, who was serving as a critical incident commander the morning of March 3, was called as a Crown witness at sentencing.
He detailed the extensive response that was required, including by the Emergency Response Team (ERT), the explosive disposal unit, K9 services, and air support.
He also engaged with a specialized group of officers in Ottawa, who were staged and ready to respond, to help locate the suspect.
Given the nature of the crime, Dunlevy says an emergency alert was issued, something that has happened more since the Portapique mass shooting.
He said the mass shooting is “not lost on any of us … in policing” and “the public and their awareness of incidents and their want and need to know what’s happening is something that we’ve certainly picked up on.”
“We’ve all noticed it with respect to emergency alerting,” he said.
“If the incident does get to a point where we want people to be aware and give them direction on what they may want to do,” Dunlevy says, “then emergency alerts are put in place and that was the case here, because of the randomness of the incident.”
“We didn’t know what we had, and when you don’t know what you have, you have to plan for the worst.”
Meanwhile, the Crown says the heavy police response and the alert had widespread impacts.
“These incidents are terrifying to the community,” Kayter told Global News. “Colchester was rocked to its core by the incidents of Portapique and afterwards, and these types of shooting events have a profound impact through the alert system and the community news networks.”
The judge said the response was “expected and appropriate.”
Gun violence ‘has to stop’
The judge called the incident “a wanton, foolish, reckless stunt.”
“You’re so fortunate you didn’t kill him, so fortunate, or you’d be spending a lot, lot more time in jail.”
The judge also noted concerns about guns in Colchester County, saying, “the use of guns is slowly increasing in Colchester and it has to stop.”
He also said Moxsom’s “level of culpability is at the top of the scale,” referencing his prior record and firearms prohibition.
Moxsom received time and a half credit of 5.5 months for time already served in jail.
His lawyer, Mark Bailey, said there was an “extreme level of intoxication” and that his client has cooperated with the investigation and taken full responsibility since the beginning.
Bailey said Moxsom was capable of rehabilitation. The judge, however, wasn’t so sure.
“I’m not so sure you’re a great candidate for rehabilitation … Do what you have to do to make yourself a better person, sir, or you’ll be spending a lot more time in jail,” the judge said. “This behaviour has to stop, you understand that?”
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