Accused cop-killer appears Iqaluit court

AARON SPITZER

IQALUIT — The Cape Dorset man accused of killing a Mountie made his first appearance in court last Friday.

Salomonie Jaw, 46, is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting-death of RCMP Const. Jurgen Seewald on March 5 in Cape Dorset.

When he arrived at Iqaluit’s Arnakallak courthouse in the back of an RCMP squad truck Friday afternoon, Jaw’s hands were shackled and his eyes were averted from the knot of reporters awaiting his arrival.

As an RCMP officer hustled him into the courthouse, Jaw made no effort to hide his face.

When RCMP officials released his name a day after last week’s shooting, Jaw quickly became the most infamous man in Nunavut.

For four days he was held in Cape Dorset as part of the police investigation into the death. His court date Friday was his first public appearance since giving himself up in the early evening of March 5, after a 10-hour standoff with police.

Jaw remained impassive throughout the brief court proceeding.

Dressed in a blue T-shirt and sweatpants, with a mane of black hair trailing down to his shoulder blades, he spoke only once. When Justice Robert Kilpatrick read the charge against him and asked if he understood it, the Cape Dorset man paused and then enunciated clearly, “Yes.”

Crown prosecutor Richard Meredith requested that the judge prohibit Jaw from having contact with a woman with whom he was quarrelling prior to the shooting.

Jaw did not enter a plea during the appearance.

His lawyer, Sue Cooper, did not make an application for bail. Jaw will remain in custody at the Baffin Correctional Centre until his next court appearance on April 3.

If convicted of first-degree murder, Jaw will spend a minimum of 25 years in prison without hope of parole.

Though police have released few details about the shooting, the incident apparently occurred after Const. Seewald went to Jaw’s residence to deal with a domestic dispute. A struggle ensued and a single shot was fired, striking Seewald in the body.

Seewald’s partner — the only other RCMP officer in the community at the time — transported the wounded Mountie to the Cape Dorset nursing station, but he died a short time later.

Following the shooting, Jaw was at large for several hours. When an RCMP containment team arrived from Iqaluit, they eventually found him barricaded in his home.

At 6:30 p.m. — more than 16 hours after the shooting — he emerged and surrendered peacefully to police.

An artist and employee of the Northwest Company store in Cape Dorset, Jaw is the brother of the community’s mayor, Mathew Saveakjuk Jaw.