weekend to fire rifle shots at police and others
PHOTO BY SEAN McKIBBON
July 14, 2000
SEAN McKIBBON
Nunatsiaq News
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IQALUIT— A man wielding a rifle terrorized Apex residents and fired a number of shots into a house before being shot himself in an exchange of gunfire with two RCMP members early in the morning of July 10.
The shoot-out began after two members of the Iqaluit RCMP responded to a complaint of a man firing gunshots in the Apex area.
While Sergeant Mike O’Malley of the Iqaluit detachment said he believes that the man had been shooting from a number of locations in Apex, he was apprehended on top of a brown coloured building beside the old IODE hall.
Witnesses said the man shot at police from the roof of the building. While one RCMP member was being shot at, a second went behind the building.
The gunman fell down and dropped his rifle after being shot by one of the officers.
O’Malley said he could not say for certain whether the man was wounded by a bullet from a police officers’ gun, because no bullet has yet been recovered.
Witnesses saw the man bleeding on his right side, below his armpit to the top of his leg. Police went on the roof, put handcuffs on the man, took him down, and put him in an ambulance that arrived shortly afterward.
"Three people had guns... He fired on our officers. They returned fire and he stopped shooting, so I think a reasonable person would assume, yes, we shot him. We can’t say that because we haven’t recovered any bullet," O’Malley said.
No one else was injured in the exchange of gun-fire.
Stable condition
A police press release on July 10 said it was unclear how many shots had been fired by the man and by police.
After the man was taken into custody, he underwent several hours of surgery at the Baffin Regional Hospital to repair damage from a single gunshot wound. He was flown to Ottawa for medical attention the next day. Police said Tuesday that the man is in stable condition.
People in the community said they were shocked by the incident and some expressed sympathy for the man’s parents.
Many of the people Nunatsiaq News talked to about the incident did not want to give an interview.
"Talk to the police. We don’t want to be killed," said one person.
O’Malley would not say who the gunman was aiming at.
"The counts include attempted murders of three people and pointing firearms at another person. It involves different people besides our members, but I’m not going disclose those names," O’Malley said.
The investigation continues, but the police do not anticipate that any further charges will be laid.
Willie Ishulutak, 20, has been charged with three counts of attempted murder, three counts of endangering life by discharging a firearm, one count of careless use of a firearm, four counts of pointing a firearm at an individual, one count of endangering life while committing willful damage, one count of willful damage under $5,000 and one count of using a firearm while committing an indictable offence.