Lawsuit blames police for stray bullet that hit Iqaluit man

A New Brunswick man hit by a stray bullet during a shootout in Iqaluit in 2011 says he’s still waiting for answers from police about what happened, and who shot the bullet that struck him in the head. 

It happened on a Wednesday around 4 a.m. during a shootout between Iqaluit RCMP and a suspect they say had pointed a firearm at them. 

"I woke up with a very, very sharp pain in the back of my head followed by shooting pain," says Arthur Wilson, who now lives in Moncton. "I heard a couple of gunshots and realized I’d been struck by a bullet."

At the time, Wilson, now 27, had been in Iqaluit for just two weeks working for Arctic Ventures and was living in staff housing just behind the store. 

Wilson rolled out of bed and crawled to the back bedroom where his sister, her fiance (now husband) and their six-month-old baby were sleeping. Another roommate was also in the building. 

"I banged on the door and shouted, 'Get down on the ground, bullets are coming through the house.'" 

Then he realized he was standing in a pool of blood. He lay in his sister’s lap, believing he was going to die. The baby slept through the entire thing. 

Wilson was taken to hospital where doctors used five staples to close the wound. 

Wilson says that night changed his life. Since then, he’s seen several therapists and been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. He says he still has flashbacks, has suffered from depression and often has trouble going to sleep.

"If you’re driving a car and you get in a real bad accident, you might not want to drive your car ever again," he says. "This happened while I was in bed sleeping — the most innocent thing a person can do — and I almost die from sleeping." 

Still no answers

Wilson says no one has explained why those bullets came into his room or whether they were from police or the man they were trying to apprehend.

"They still haven't disclosed really what's going on with anything," Wilson says. "I still haven't really had answers to many, many questions."

The shootout happened on Nov. 23, 2011. 

RCMP say they responded to a call about gunshots early in the morning in Iqaluit’s 100-block area. RCMP said when officers arrived at the scene, they were confronted by a man who pointed a firearm at them. Shots were fired and the man fled.

Police said they found the man a short time later near house 238, bleeding from the chest area. The suspect was taken to the Qikiqtani General Hospital where he was treated for injuries. 

Yellowknife RCMP were called in to investigate with oversight by the Ottawa Police Service. CBC contacted both of them, but they have yet to release the results of their investigation.

A youth was later charged in relation to the incident. 

Lawsuit filed

Wilson filed a lawsuit in November 2013 against two RCMP officers, accusing them of negligently discharging a firearm in a public place and operating a firearm without due regard to public safety. It also alleges the Attorney General of Canada failed to train officers in proper methods of pursuing suspects, failed to train RCMP officers in the proper discharge of a weapon in a public area and failed to create policies directing the proper discharge of a weapon.

"Other than getting shot in the head while sleeping... my client knows very little about what happened," says his lawyer, Steven Cooper. 

Wilson is seeking damages amounting to $310,000.

"I'm not looking for a million dollars or to become rich overnight," Wilson says. "I just want what's right. I don’t know what a human life would go for or what the pain and suffering would go for, but I’m sure there’s something." 

Wilson went back to work shortly after the incident, staying in town for a six months before returning home to Moncton, N.B. He says managers at Arctic Ventures at the time were very supportive.

But he says he still has the scar and gets pains in his head. He’s only lived in basement apartments since leaving Nunavut. 

"I"m just always worried about what’s going to happen.”

RCMP fired bullet that injured Wilson

A statement of defence filed in July 2014 by the Attorney General of Canada and the two officers in response to Wilson's statement of dlaim says RCMP fired the bullet that injured Wilson but that the RCMP officers' actions were not negligent.

It says the suspect was standing in front of the house where Wilson lived and pointing a rifle at Const. Matthew Strader and Const. Marc-Antoine Breton. The officers were "obliged in the course of their duties to take immediate action including the use of force to protect themselves and civilian members of the public from the threat posed," the statement says. 

Police fired five shots in total. Strader fired two bullets from a 9mm pistol and Breton fired a shotgun three times. It was one of the 9mm bullets that injured Wilson. 

The statement says the officers learned of Wilson's injury and "attended at his residence to inquire about his condition and ensure that an ambulance was on its way" before pursuing and arresting the suspect.