'SENSELESS, THOUGHTLESS': Man pleads guilty to blinding stranger with BB gun
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ORILLIA – An Angus man who shot a BB gun at innocent people while on a drive-by shooting spree was having a “hoot,” court heard Tuesday.
The sordid game of thrills ended after Hunter Samson-Boucher, 20, and his buddy, Christian Amato, 22, of Innisfil, were arrested for shooting one man in the face and blinding him in the right eye, leaving him floundering on the ground in agony as they sped off.
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Standing in the prisoner’s box in handcuffs Tuesday, Samson-Boucher pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and pointing a firearm.
“This was a senseless, thoughtless, cowardly crime,” said Justice Anastasia Nichols as she sentenced him to 22 months in a provincial jail.
Victim Drew Armstrong, 31, already partially crippled from a bout of childhood cancer, was limping home from his job at Canadian Tire on Bayfield St. on Nov. 19, 2018 when suddenly a car pulled up in the darkness with hazard lights flashing and someone inside yelled.
“I walked toward them because I thought they needed help,” Armstrong said outside of court.
Suddenly someone yelled “bang!” and shot Armstrong in the face. He crumpled to the ground in pain as the two men sped off.
A short time earlier, the pair had fired shots at four kids who were playing on skateboards in adriveway.
The children told police a car pulled up and the driver yelled, then shot at them with a black, smoking pistol and sped off.
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Another victim, Paul McBride, was out walking his dog on Pine Grove Ave. when he said two men drove by and shot at him three times.
“It was pure luck that no one else was hurt,” Crown Michelle Levasseur said during the sentencing.
“There is only one word for the offence – horrific.”
In court, the Crown read Armstrong’s victim impact as he sat at the front, head bowed.
He wrote about the pain, the depression, turning to food for comfort, and the fear that causes him to look over his shoulder whenever a car drives by.
“I suffered massive headaches. My eye was always leaking. And now my eyeball is shrinking,” Armstrong wrote.
“I hate to go out in the sunlight … I feel a lesser person.”
In bail court last November, Samson-Boucher’s mother, Shelley Samson, wept as she testified her son is a “good boy.”
She said her son was named Hunter because he comes from a family of hunters.
“He was taught that weapons are not a toy,” she said.
“My son was not brought up this way – it’s Christian’s fault.”
He was released on bail twice but breached conditions both times.
Co-accused Christian Amato will be back in court in January for a preliminary hearing.
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