No doubt puzzled why no one was chasing him (which wasn’t entirely true, two ER Team members were out in a boat looking for him, but it’s a big lake), Jonny motored back to Mickey’s camp. As he pulled up to the dock he could hear noises in the bush and let loose with the shotgun wildly into the bush. As our members took cover he continued to shoot into the trees, and they could hear the pellets striking the foliage above their heads.
As he was firing the boat drifted farther and farther away from shore. The members on shore, all the while he was shooting, spoke to him, trying to get him to lay down the gun and give himself up. To no avail, as he continued to shoot up the ammunition he had, yelling at the police to shoot him (had he found the rifle that he so desperately wanted and been firing with it, he in all probability would have been shot). As he slowly drifted out of shotgun range of the shore, there came a pause in the shooting and then a huge boom. Then the motor on the boat started again and he rode off into the dark.
The large boom? When he drifted out of range Jonny took opened one of the shotgun shells and took the pellets out. He then added gunpowder from other shotgun shells and a flare. He then put in a ball bearing and the pellets he could still fit in and fired. The recoil almost knocked him out of the boat.
As daylight returned the RCMP aircraft began flying over the lake, looking for the suspect, and found the boat abandoned on shore at the other end of the lake. The boat was not too far, as the crow flies, from the road coming up from La Ronge, near a radio tower, and the ER Team, the two dog masters, and the other members moved down to the area to try and intercept him at the road.
The ERT team and dog masters set up at the radio tower, and the members from La Ronge and Southend set up a perimeter north and south on the road. Bill and Joe, colleagues of mine from La Ronge Detachment were sitting in the van, talking away the quiet. Bill, who is one of the most laid back people you’re going to me, and one of my Corporals, happened to glance in the rear mirror and to his shock saw Jonny standing behind the van, pointing the handgun at them, his arm outstretched. Bill calmly put the van in gear and drove forward several yards and Jonny lowered the gun, so Bill called the ER Team and put the van in reverse. As he backed towards Jonny, he once again raised the handgun. While waiting for the ER Team to arrive Bill entertained himself by driving backwards and forwards watching Jonny raise and lower the handgun.
As the team arrived Jonny bolted into the bush and Garry, a friend of mine since early in my service and the dog master from Regina, loosed his dog who almost immediately brought Jonny to a halt just inside the bush. When Garry followed he found Jonny with the handgun in his mouth, and slowly, gently convinced him to lower the gun, and give himself up. A little more than 24 hours after starting his rampage it was over.
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Good ending! I’m surprised though: when he was so keen to get his hands on a rifle in the last instalment, when he had a handgun and shotgun, I figured he had some kind of terrible and elaborate plan. A handgun is usually enough to contrive to have law enforcement shoot you, if that’s all you’re after. I guess he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do? Very glad it worked out as it did. Good story, Clare. Thanks!