Witness claims no memory of stolen police gun being used to shoot teen
A man who prosecutors say was with Matthew McKay when he allegedly shot 16-year-old Calli Vanderaa with a stolen RCMP gun told court Monday he had no memory of the October 2015 shooting.
"I don't remember, I was f--king juiced," Andrew Miles testified.
Vanderaa and a friend had exited a Mac's convenience store on Autumnwood Drive and were about to leave in a friend's car when somebody shot Vanderaa through the front passenger door window.
McKay, 24, has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and 10 firearm offences.
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Miles said he and McKay had been at a party in a house garage earlier in the evening, when the teen host, someone he did not know, told him his father was a police officer.
Miles said he saw an RCMP van parked outside and found it unlocked. Miles said he looked inside the van and stole a gun, magazines, a camera and computer.
"I put [the gun] in my waistband … After that I can't remember," he said.
Miles said he had hoped to use the gun to "jack some drug dealers."
"It would have been nice, but it didn't happen," he said.
Asked if he and McKay made their way to the Mac's store, Miles was vague.
"Apparently I did, yeah, I guess so," he said.
Miles said he was "not sure" if he had kept the gun all night. Asked directly if he or McKay had shot a girl, he said "I don't know."
McKay and Miles were arrested at their homes the following day. Miles said a subsequent statement to police was "coerced."
"I told them to f--k off already and they kept going and going," he said. "I told them 'I don't remember, I don't remember,' and they kept talking s--t," he said.
Vanderaa testified last week she and a friend had been drinking when they walked to the convenience store around midnight and saw two men standing outside.
"They were staring at us, which made me feel very uncomfortable," she said.
Vanderaa said she went to the washroom with what she thought was an anxiety attack and called friends to come pick them up.
"At first I thought maybe it was the liquor or something, but at the same time it could have been my woman's intuition telling me I was in a bad situation and I really needed to get out of there," she said.
Vanderaa said her friends arrived in a car a couple of minutes later and she jumped in the front passenger seat.
A man "came toward the car and directly goes to the passenger window," she said. "He's yelling and screaming but the window is rolled up so no one could make up what he was saying.
"I was yelling at the driver to back up because we didn't know who he was and there was no point in doing anything … I turned back and looked out the window and he had the gun in the waist of his pants and he lifted up his shirt and points the gun straight at the window and shots me," Vanderaa said.
As the car sped away, Vandarra did not initially realize she had been shot.
"My whole body started getting really warm and everything started getting black," she said. "My vision was blurry, everything was starting to dim out. I said 'Guys, I think I've been shot.'"
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Vanderaa's friends drove to a nearby community centre where she called 911. Police arrived minutes later.
"The last thing I remember is I told them to tell my dad that I loved him and that I was very sorry and I passed out," she told court through tears.
Vanderaa said she spent two months in hospital and continues to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression.
