A Rocky Mountain House teenager described clicking a pen-like device several times before — to his shock and disbelief — it fatally discharged a .22 calibre bullet into his friend’s chest.
Connor Rose, who was 16 at the time of Tanner Mayer’s death in September 2009, said he thought the altered flare pen, which had rolled out from under the driver’s seat of his father’s parked pickup truck while he was sitting at the steering wheel, was a regular pen.
Connor said he’d never seen it before.
“I clicked it a few times. It didn’t do anything. I brought it down halfway. Nothing would happen. I put it down further and that’s when it shot off,” said the now 18-year-old, who testified at his father’s trial at Red Deer’s Court of Queen’s Bench on Tuesday.
Connor’s dad, James Alexander Rose, 42, is charged with criminal negligence causing the death of Mayer, who was 15 when he was killed.
The elder Rose is also charged with careless use of a prohibited device. But a third charge, of manufacturing a prohibited device, was dropped by Crown prosecutor Jason Snider on Tuesday because proof was lacking that it was Rose who altered the device to fire a bullet instead of a flare.
The accused maintains he did not know the flare pen had been modified.
James Rose told police it was among a bunch of items he had quickly transferred to his new truck after trading in his old one a few weeks before.
Mayer had been sitting in the front passenger seat of Connor’s dad’s new pickup when he was struck in the left chest by the .22 calibre bullet. It passed through his heart and aorta, lodging in his right lung and causing massive internal bleeding.
Ryley Murray, a friend of Tanner and Connor’s, testified that he’d been walking towards the pickup parked in front of his house when he heard a loud bang. He saw Tanner stumble out of the truck and collapse on the lawn with a chest injury.
Murray ran inside his house to tell his mother, Bobbi Jo Feil, who called 911.
Feil testified about the commotion around her as she was compressing Mayer’s chest. The teenager was still breathing at the time, but bleeding heavily.
In an agreed statement of facts, Feil said Connor told her, while holding the flare pen, “Oh my God, he is shot, he is shot. I don’t know what this is.”
Several neighbours came out to help before emergency services arrived.
Connor immediately called his father, then appeared to go into shock, pacing around the vehicle, recalled Feil.
When asked to call 911 again, in case the ambulance got lost, Connor “was very upset. He began yelling 911! 911! . . . I thought he was losing it,” she said.
Neighbour Eric MacInnis was drawn outside by loud shouting, which turned out to be Connor’s agitated father, who had arrived at the scene with his visiting brother Victor Rose, and was seen holding the flare pen.
“He was saying ‘He’ll be alright! He’ll be OK!’ Those kinds of things,” testified MacInnis, who at one point led James Rose away to try to calm him down.
Feil and MacInnis both testified that they heard the elder Rose say it was the flare pen that caused Mayer’s injury.
Several parents who knew the Roses through Connor’s hockey involvement, also heard as much when they stopped in to support the family that evening after hearing of Mayer’s death.
Tammy Lee Brosinsky testified that James Rose told her he couldn’t believe the accident had happened, since he had previously tried to set the flare pen off “about 50 times,” but it jammed. “He thought it was a dud.”
Tammy Davis heard the accused say he’d tried to use the flare pen while hunting, but it didn’t work.
Ken Cinnamon said James Rose told him he felt responsible for the accident because he did not think to get rid of the device.
Rocky RCMP officers arrested the accused in November 2009 after searching his home and finding loose .22 calibre bullets in a basket in his kitchen.
Connor testified that his father did not own any guns to his knowledge, and hadn’t done much hunting since moving to Alberta from B.C. a decade ago.
Several members of the Mayer family, who attended the trial, became emotional during some of the testimony.
More witnesses are expected to be called today.
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com