Accused stands as only defence witness at Iqaluit murder trial

The public seating area in the Iqaluit courtroom used for Pingoatuk Kolola’s trial was full March 5, when the accused appeared as a witness in his own defence. (SKETCH BY ERIN BOAKE)

Pingoatuk Kolola of Kimmirut, who faces a charge of first-degree murder in the 2007 shooting death of Const. Douglas Scott, gives evidence in his defence March 5 at an Iqaluit courtroom, while a video shot by RCMP investigators is displayed on a monitor on the wall to his right. Courtrooms in Iqaluit are designed so that witnesses sit with their backs to the area where the public sits. (SKETCH BY ERIN BOAKE)

The defence closed its case Friday in the Iqaluit trial of Pingoatuk Kolola, who’s facing a charge of first-degree murder in the shooting death of RCMP Const. Douglas Scott.

Kolola appeared as a witness in his own defence Friday morning. He was the only witness for the defence.

Kolola said he fired the shot that killed Scott from his hip, holding the rifle with his right hand and cradling his eight-month old son Adam in his left.

“I wasn’t shooting at anything in particular,” Kolola told jurors.

The trial had already heard that Kolola had been drinking and fighting with his common-law wife that night. She later chased him by snowmobile as he drove through Kimmirut with Adam by his side in his truck.

Kolola also said he didn’t remember most of what happened that night, when he was driving wildly around Kimmirut in the truck.

He said that after he got his truck stuck on a pile of lumber at a construction site, he took Adam, a 30.06 rifle and a baby bag out of the truck and headed for his nearby home. Speaking in Inuktitut, he said he walked behind a bigger pile of lumber to stay out of sight and said he’d taken the rifle that night with the intention of committing suicide.

Kolola said he fired “instantaneously” as the police truck came to a stop at the construction site.

When he saw the bullet hole, he got scared and hoped he hadn’t shot anyone, he said.

But when he went to the driver’s side of the police truck he saw Scott’s body. “He was still,” Kolola said.

Kolola said he first loaded the rifle that night with one bullet from a cooler he kept to go hunting. “One [bullet] was enough for me,” he said. After the shooting, Kolola returned to his house, again with plans of suicide.

But when investigators found the rifle at Kolola’s house, there was a magazine partially attached to the gun with four rounds still loaded. During cross-examination, Kolola said he attached the clip after the shooting.

Crown lawyer Susanne Boucher asked Kolola why the rifle would have a loaded clip if he planned to use only one shell to shoot himself, especially if the cooler contained an open box of ammunition in plain sight.

“Maybe that was the way it is,” Kolola said.

“Maybe, or maybe you left with a full magazine in the first place,” Boucher said.

“No,” Kolola replied.

Boucher questioned why Kolola, a prize-winning marksman during his time with the Canadian Rangers, would, as a warning shot, fire a rifle with one hand in the direction of two vehicles and several houses.

He told Boucher he went behind the pile of lumber because he didn’t want to be seen and that he fired the shot to scare Scott off.

Now that both Crown and defence witnesses have all given their evidence, the jury will hear closing arguments from lawyers March 8.