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In a Massey Place bedroom in the early morning of Feb. 19, three boys posted photos and videos of themselves holding canisters of bear spray and a sawed-off shotgun.

Moments later, one boy accidentally shoots another in the head.

They drank stolen vodka and took turns pointing the gun at each other “In an effort to make it look like they’re gangsters,” Crown prosecutor Shaela Verma said as she presented an agreed statement of facts on Friday. during the sentencing for one of the boys.

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The victim was 12 years old. At the time, his friends were 12 and 13 years old. They cannot be identified under the provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA).

The surviving boys, along with the older boy’s sister, initially hid the gun in a nearby yard and blamed the shooting on someone who wasn’t home, Saskatoon youth court heard.

The older boy later admitted that “they were f***ing and the gun went off”.

His older sister told police she accidentally fired the gun. Their younger sister said she heard the gunshot, saw the victim on the floor and heard her brother say he “thought he was in safe mode.”

She said she had previously seen the gun under her sister’s bed and on her brother’s closet. His parents, who were also home, provided videos and photos from their son’s phone of the younger boy pointing the gun at the victim, the facts show.

The boy, now 13, pleaded guilty last month to criminal negligence causing death.

In other videos, the older boy is seen loading the gun, which his sister had bought. One showed him pointing the gun at the victim – who was holding the phone – 50 seconds earlier the police were called to the home in the 1000 block of Matheson Drive at 2:52 am

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The victim died a short time later. The alleged shooter is still in court, charged with manslaughter.

“Any of these kids could have been the shooter and any of them could have been the victim,” said defense attorney Brian Pfefferle, adding that the word “nonsense” doesn’t do it justice.

The victim’s mother listened on the phone and her two older sisters read victim impact statements in court. They said their family was torn apart by the death.

“He was running with older people who were using young people as bait,” a sister told the court. Wiping away tears, she said her brother grew up “too fast” but he didn’t deserve what happened to him.

Lawyers proposed a two-year sentence, split into 16 months in secure custody and eight months of community supervision, in addition to the boy’s year of enhanced pretrial detention credit. In the case of pre-sentence custody, this is the maximum allowed under the YCJA for criminal negligence causing death – three years.

Judge Lisa Watson granted the joint motion.

Pfefferle said his client was detained as a child and lived mostly with his aunt. They had a good relationship, but he was unsupervised and had “prolonged” access to alcohol and Xanax, Pfefferle told the court.

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He said the boy wanted to take responsibility “almost immediately”.

No one else appeared in court on his behalf and did not make a statement when given the opportunity.

Verma said it was concerning that the boy told a report writer before the sentence that “The laws are right but we don’t follow them” and that using guns was “fun”.

Two months after he was released on parole, he was arrested again for having two cans of bear spray in his waistband, Verma said. He was given a nine-month probation order for the weapons offences, which will run concurrently with a 12-month probation order starting after his two-year sentence.

The boy needs structure and supervision, Verma said, adding that the sentence will help them reduce their risk while protecting the public.

“Gun violence happens and it happens to children. How many children have to die before we realize this is a problem?” asked the victim’s sister.

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