Slain Mountie 'still a boy,' jury told

The first RCMP officer to find Const. Douglas Scott dead in his police vehicle gave emotional testimony Thursday at the murder trial of the Nunavut man charged in theslaying.

Scott, 20, was fatally shot on the night of Nov. 5, 2007, while he was investigating a drunk-driving complaint in the remote Baffin Island community of Kimmirut.

Pingoatuk (Ping) Kolola, 39, of Kimmirut, is charged with first-degree murder. His jury trial began Monday in Iqaluit.

Testifying on Thursday morning, Const. James Morrison said he had worked side by side with Scott in Iqaluit shortly before Scott was stationed in Kimmirut.

"Doug would spend time at my house with my family," Morrison told the court.

"Doug, in my mind, was still a boy."

Morrison said he was second in command of a four-member RCMP emergency response team that flew from Iqaluit to Kimmirut several hours after Scott was reported shot.

Surrounded accused's home

Morrison described how the team's plane touched down in Kimmirut, with no lights on, around 2:10 a.m. ET on Nov. 6. With no intelligence on the ground, Morrison said the team was prepared to fight its way off the local airport runway with heavy body armour and assault rifles.

The emergency team moved into position around Kolola's home and arrested him, along with a friend who was also in the apartment at the time, Morrison testified.

He then recalled standing with his partner in the dark close to Scott's RCMP truck, which was parked nearby, and realizing that no professionals had checked on Scott.

Morrison said he went to the truck, looked inside, and saw Scott's body slumped over the vehicle's middle console.

"I knew from his injuries there was no chance I could save Dougie; he was dead," Morrison told the court.

To date, the 12-person jury at Kolola's trial has heard Crown testimony from family members and friends who said Kolola was driving around in a drunken rage that night following an argument with his common-law wife.

Some witnesses also testified Kolola admitted that he had killed the police officer.

The trial continues Thursday and is expected to run two or three weeks. While the jury has already heard from half of the Crown's 20 witnesses, the defence has yet to indicate if it will call any witnesses.

The court also heard Thursday from RCMP forensic specialist Sgt. Ernie Dechant, who showed videos and photographs of the crime scene.

Members of Scott's family, who have travelled from Ontario to Iqaluit for the trial, excused themselves from the courtroom before Dechant's testimony began.