Kolola told investigators he “did not plan” to shoot Mountie, jury hears

Pingoatuk Kolola of Kimmirut, on trial in Iqaluit this week on a charge of first-degree murder related to the 2007 shooting death of Const. Douglas Scott, listens to police witnesses who appeared March 2. Kolola is expected to enter the witness box March 4 to give evidence in his defence. (SKETCH BY ERIN BOAKE)

Pingoatuk Kolola admitted to police, after hours of interrogation at the Iqaluit police detachment, that he shot RCMP Const. Douglas Scott, a jury heard Tuesday.

Kolola, 39, is accused of shooting Scott in Kimmirut on Nov. 5, 2007 and faces a charge of first-degree murder.

Crown prosecutors closed their case Tuesday by playing more than four hours of audio and videotaped interviews that police conducted with Kolola in Iqaluit three days after the shooting.

“I did not plan to do it,” Kolola told RCMP Cpl. Jimmy Akavak. “I planned to use the rifle on myself.”

The two men were speaking in Inuktitut. Akavak is originally from Kimmirut.

In the days leading up to the shooting, Kolola had been fighting with his common-law wife Ooleetua Judea. He had been drinking vodka and driving through Kimmirut in a pickup truck when Scott was dispatched to round him up.

Kolola had got his truck caught on a pile of lumber at a construction site when Scott arrived on the scene. On Monday, expert witnesses told the jury Scott was shot in the face with a 30.06 rifle from behind a nearby pile of lumber.

After hours of interrogation by Akavak and Sgt. David DiCastri, an investigator sent from Calgary after the shooting, Kolola told Akavak in Inuktitut that the shell casing could be found in a garbage can of the bathroom in the house Kolola shared with Judea.

Earlier, DiCastri repeatedly tried to get Kolola to admit to the shooting and told Kolola that Kimmirut “is a police state. It’s on lockdown until we find that shell casing.”

Kolola wept often and smoked cigarettes in an interview room at the Iqaluit RCMP detachment.

DiCastri urged Kolola to help both his and Scott’s family heal by admitting to the shooting. DiCastri played for Kolola a video of Kolola’s daughter, who cried and told her father she loved him.

Kolola began sobbing as the video played on DiCastri’s laptop.

“Her tears are not lying,” DiCastri told Kolola. “She loves you. She needs her father to be strong.”

DiCastri eventually left the interrogation room while Kolola and Akavak spoke by themselves in Inuktitut. Kolola said he was scared of the police and had trouble expressing himself in English.

He told Akavak he didn’t remember firing the rifle but “became aware when I heard a shot.”

Later, at the urging of investigators, Kolola wrote a letter apologizing to Scott’s family, which DiCastri read from the witness box.

“To the family of Doug,” the letter reads, “I don’t know where to begin. I never meant to hurt or harm anyone, let alone your son or brother.”

The letter continued: “Nothing I can say or do can bring back Doug.”

“I’m truly sorry from the bottom of my heart.”

Earlier, in conversation with Akavak, Kolola said he never had anything against Scott.

“I never even talked to him,” Kolola said. “Sometime when we passed each other on the road, we’d wave.”

Kolola is expected to take the stand March 4 in his defence.

Also on Tuesday, one of the five Iqaluit jurors was excused to deal with a personal matter. The trial will continue with a jury of 11.