Kimmirut man charged in March 18 RCMP shooting appears in Iqaluit court

Detainees, including David Lyta of Kimmirut, who faces charges in relation to the shooting of RCMP residences in Kimmirut on March 18, walks into the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit at 9:30 a.m. on March 23. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

David Lyta, 22, of Kimmirut, who faces charges in relation to the March 18 shooting of two RCMP residences in that community, returns March 30 to the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit, seen here on March 23. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

The Kimmirut man accused of shooting at the homes of two sleeping RCMP members March 18 made a brief appearance at the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit March 23.

David Lyta, 22, arrived in a white RCMP van at the back entrance of the court house at 9:30 a.m., accompanied by other detainees scheduled for court appearances the same day.

As he walked up the fenced back entrance under guard, Lyta bowed his head inside his prison-issued green parka as protection against the 60 kilometre-an-hour gusts and -39 C windchill.

Inside the courtroom, Nunavut’s chief Justice of the Peace, Nicole Simka, quickly adjourned Lyta’s appearance to the following Friday, March 31, at the request of Lyta’s defence lawyer Norman Boose.

Boose asked for the adjournment to prepare his defence for Lyta, a slim, clean-shaven young man with traces of teenaged acne, dressed in a blue sweatshirt, who sat between Boose and a court worker during the brief appearance.

Lyta faces two counts of recklessly discharging a firearm, contrary to Sect. 244.2 of the Criminal Code, in relation to a shooting incident against RCMP in Kimmirut, south of Iqaluit, on March 18.

If convicted, Lyta faces a mandatory minimum sentence of four years in prison.

Shortly before 3 a.m., March 18, the sound of gunfire directed at the walls and windows of their homes awakened two RCMP members in Kimmirut.

Four bullets entered one member’s residence, while five entered the other.

The shots woke up an RCMP corporal, his wife and their adult son in one home, and, in the other home, a constable, his wife and a young child, at about 2:40 a.m..

Members of the RCMP “V” Division’s Emergency Response Team, who arrived from Iqaluit early March 18, arrested Lyta in connection with the incident.

Alcohol is believed to have been a factor in this incident, police said.

Two days after the shooting incident in Kimmirut, an Igloolik man died after a March 20 confrontation with a Nunavut RCMP member.

The RCMP has since handed the investigation of the March 20 shooting to the Ottawa Police Service and the RCMP’s G Division in the Northwest Territories.