Gun implicated in Canada Day weekend homicide was found near Iqaluit school 'ready to fire'

As Iqalummiut readied for a Sunday of Canada Day festivities in 2019, events for the annual Alianait arts festival were put on hold as local RCMP were on a manhunt.

Wayne Panipakoocho was the suspect in a homicide investigation after Hannas Braun was shot and killed the morning of June 30.

Officers located and apprehended a distraught Panipakoocho within four hours of first receiving the call, but their concern quickly shifted to the location of the firearm allegedly used in the homicide.

Panipakoocho, 22, is on trial this week in the Nunavut Court of Justice for first-degree murder in the death. He's pleaded not guilty.

The firearm itself has been a point of interest for Crown prosecutors, as they called witnesses through the first three days of the trial.

And while RCMP officers who testified early in the trial have all said it was Panipakoocho who helped lead them to the location of the Ruger .207-calibre rifle, the questions from Crown prosecutor Abel Dion on Wednesday focused on the state of the weapon when it was found.

'Ready to be fired'

The court heard from Sgt. Maj. Stephen Archibald Wednesday afternoon, who found the gun located down the hill from Joamie School in Iqaluit.

Archibald testified he was able to locate the weapon "within minutes" of being guided by Panipakoocho, who was parked in a police vehicle with other officers at the top of the hill overlooking the area, relaying directions to Archibald.

Archibald said the first thing he did was make sure the gun was safe. He testified when he opened the bolt-action rifle, he found a round in the chamber.

"Not spent ammunition. So a cartridge that was fully ready to go," Archibald said, adding he also removed two more rounds from the rifle's magazine, and the gun's safety was not engaged.

"So that gave me another huge sense of relief that because it was behind a school, knowing that if a child came along and picked that up, it was perhaps only four of five pounds of pressure away on a trigger from discharging."

Archibald said with the round in the chamber and the safety disengaged, the gun was "ready to be fired immediately."

He also testified a .207-calibre rifle is typically used for medium-to-big game, like deer and moose.

Missing bullet casing mystery

Earlier in the trial, the court also heard from the RCMP officer who secured the crime scene at the home in the 2600-block of the city, as well as a crime scene expert who was flown up from Ottawa to assist with the investigation.

They, along with Archibald, have all been asked by Dion whether they were able to locate a bullet casing.

Because the rifle is bolt-action, to remove a spent casing one would have to pull back on the action to eject the casing out of the chamber after the gun has been fired, Archibald explained. By doing so, a new bullet would move into the chamber, if there was one in the magazine.

All who have testified, who have been asked about the spent casing, said none was ever found. Lindsay Scott, the crime scene expert brought up from Ottawa, said her team searched the hill area behind the apartment building where Braun was shot to no avail.

She also testified she was told a metal detector would be used after her team left Iqaluit to continue searching for it.

Dion has not yet explained to the court the significance of the missing bullet casing, though more Crown witnesses are expected to testify when the trial resumes Thursday morning.