RCMP gun used to shoot Calli Vanderaa was safely stored, Mountie tells supervisor

A Manitoba Mountie at the centre of a stolen-gun case that sawa Winnipeg teenshot and seriously injured told an RCMP supervisor he'd locked his gun securely in a police car only to seethe keys to the vehicle stolen from his housewhile he and his family were asleep inside.

These and other details about events prior to the shooting of Calli Vanderaa are contained in a statement of defence filed by the Attorney General of Canada in connection with a lawsuit the teen and her father launched after she was shot by the stolengun last October.

Two men are accused ofthe shooting and theft of the gun from an RCMP sergeant's home in the southeast of the city. Their casesremain before the courts with hearing dates pending for 2017.

Vanderaa, then 16, was struck and severely wounded after the vehicle she was sitting in was shot at.

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She and her father sued the RCMP and the sergeantin January, alleging he'd left "his police belt, replete with firearm, Taser and baton, visible on the backseat of the car" in violation of RCMP policy.

Thoseallegations conflict with what the sergeant told his supervisor after he discovered the theft and called it in, according to the attorney general's statement of defence.

The statement says the sergeant "was not officially on duty or on call" but he was authorized to take a "specially equipped" RCMP vehicle home on Oct. 23, 2015 "in order to respond to a traffic call if required."

The sergeant reported he'd parked the police car on his parking pad and "had secured his RCMP-issued firearm and utility belt inside a locked box that was bolted to the floor of the RCMP vehicle," the defence statement says.

During the night as the sergeant and family were asleep, "someone unknown to [him]entered the home, stole the keys to the RCMP vehicle, entered [it]and stole the firearm and utility belt," the statement adds.

The sergeant's supervisor told him to call in the theft to the Winnipeg police, the statement said.

Delayed investigation

The RCMP is delaying an internal probeinto how the sergeant stored the gun "to protect the integrity" of the Winnipeg police criminal investigation, according to the statement.

The attorney general states, however, that the sergeant had completed all required training regarding the use and storage of firearms, "including but not limited to an annual semi-automatic pistol course" he successfully finished in July 2014.

The attorney general is seeking that Vanderaa's claim against the RCMP be dismissed, saying it can't be held vicariously liable for anything a Crown employee does outside of work.

The sergeant has not yet filed a statement of defence on his own behalf. He lost a recent bid to see part of Vanderaa's claim alleging negligence tossed out, court documents show.

Counter-suit

In an additional development, the attorney general has launched a third-party claimagainst the two men criminally charged in the case, saying it was their alleged actions that either caused or contributed to the damages Vanderaais suing over.

It was they who entered the sergeant's home without permission, stole his keys and then the RCMPequipment, the counter-claim alleges.

The suspects have not yet filed any statement of defence.