Nunavut man guilty of 1st-degree murder in shooting of northern Mountie

IQALUIT, Nunavut - Jury members broke into tears Thursday after finding a Nunavut man guilty of first-degree murder for shooting a Mountie in the head while the officer sat in his police truck.

Pingoatuk Kolola, a 39-year-old father of six, was charged after RCMP Const. Doug Scott was shot at close range on the night of Nov. 5, 2007, in Kimmirut on Baffin Island.

Many jurors - seven of whom are from the tiny community where the crime took place - wept openly as the verdict was delivered. As soon as the jury filed out of the courtroom, loud weeping could be heard from the adjacent hallway.

"The decision of yours reflects the sense of justice in your own hearts and in your community," Justice Robert Kilpatrick told them.

Doug Scott Sr., in court for the verdict, wore a frozen grin and tears rolled down his reddened cheeks. Members of Kolola's family wept as the four-day wait for the jury to make up its mind ended.

"It was just very long, waiting for the phone to ring, thinking about all the possibilities and the impact of that," said Marla Scott, the slain officer's mother. "As much as it was a relief when the phone rang, it was also very emotional."

The verdict was welcome, she said, but doesn't make up for the loss of her son.

"We're very pleased to hear the verdict, although it will never reverse the loss of Dougie. It is a comfort to know that the person responsible has been held accountable."

Kolola's lawyer, Andy Mahar, echoed her words, saying there were no winners in the case.

"There's just no happy ending to this for anybody," Mahar said. "A family lost a lovely young man, another family lost their father - six kids. All for a moment of basically pointless violence.

In Kimmirut, people are glad the trial is over.

"It has been stressful for everyone," said Akeego Ikkidluak, the hamlet's administrator.

"We've been keeping it in the back of our minds, but not talking about it. It's a very sensitive thing. We're 400 people, everyone knows everyone and the majority of them are related."

Marla Scott said the family will cope with Doug's death as best they can.

"We just have to move forward. Life goes on."

First-degree murder brings an automatic life sentence with no parole eligibility for at least 25 years. He was to be sentenced Friday.

Kolola did not dispute that he shot the 20-year-old officer, but he testified during his trial in Iqaluit that he fired to scare him, not hurt him.

Court heard that Scott was shot through the passenger-side window. His gun was still snapped tight in his holster and a shotgun in the truck was still in its bracket.

The verdict followed jury deliberations that began Monday afternoon and capped a trial that heard difficult testimony about the fateful night of a suicidal man at his breaking point.

His common-law wife, Ooleetua Judea, was leaving him. In the days before the shooting, Judea fought to get Kolola kicked out of their house, a serious move in a region where social housing is scarce.

On the night of Nov. 5, Kolola would later tell police, he drank a mickey of vodka on an empty stomach and topped it off by smoking some marijuana. He got in his car with his eight-month-old son Adam on his lap and a rifle and went looking for the people who were siding with Judea in the dispute.

Around 11 p.m. Scott got a call at home about a suspected drunk driver. The officer, originally from Brockville, Ont., had been in Nunavut for about six months. He climbed into his police truck and eventually drove up alongside Sam Pikuyak, who had been following Kolola.

Kolola, meanwhile, had gone up a hill and lodged his car in some construction debris. He got out and began walking when Scott drove up alongside.

Pikuyak told court he eventually climbed the hill himself, to find the dead officer, slumped in the bloodied seat.

Pikuyak called co-worker Lloyd McDougall and told him, "We've got a dead cop uptown."

McDougall went to warn the town's other Mountie, who had just arrived from Prince Edward Island. That Mountie couldn't reach the local dispatcher, so he called his old detachment back on the Island, which relayed the information back to authorities in Nunavut.

Kolola, by this time, had barricaded himself at home. His hunting partner, Kolola Pitsiulak, came over, took Adam to safety a few doors down and then returned to counsel his friend.

Kolola was frantic. He told Pitsiulak that he had pulled the trigger and would forever be known as a cop-killer.

Before dawn an RCMP SWAT team had surrounded the house. Kolola scribbled a note in orange crayon saying, "To my brothers and sisters, I hope you can someday forgive me for what I've done. To my yet-to-be-born son, I am very sorry you won't grow up with your father." He put the letter in an envelope with $140 cash and stuffed it in the cushion of a chair.

Around 4 a.m., he surrendered.

When questioned by police, he told them, in his native Inuktitut, that he didn't mean for the shooting to happen.

"I did not plan on doing it. I planned on killing myself," he told police on an interrogation video played in court.

Scott's parents remembered their son as a young man mature beyond his years who was thoroughly enjoying his time in the North. He was happy to mingle in his Inuit community and chow down on local delicacies such as seal and whale.

"He was beginning to experience the culture with a lot of enjoyment," said Doug Sr.

Scott's death - as well as the shooting of Const. Chris Worden in Hay River, N.W.T., only weeks before - helped change the face of policing in the North.

Shortly after the murders, the RCMP announced officers would always have backup on a call. The force has also beefed up many of its smaller detachments, at a cost of millions of dollars to the territorial and federal governments.