Tag: fugitive

Crown wants Taber school shooter sent to adult jail:

Todd Cameron Smith, the gunman in the Taber school shooting in Alberta, Canada, is back in the news today as the Ontario Crown is trying to get Smith sent to an adult jail…

Paula Teeter, a worker with the Ministry of Child and Youth Services, testified Thursday in a Peterborough court that the man is the oldest “young offender” in the province and is still at a high risk to reoffend.

The man had finished serving his original sentence of three years in November 2003, but a judge had ruled he was still dangerous and should be held indefinitely.

Thanks to Jessie for the link.

Taber killer back in T.O.:

The Taber, Alberta school shooter is back in an open-custody facility in the Toronto, Ontario area.

The shooter, who is unnamed by the Canadian media, but we know as Todd Cameron Smith, previously escaped from such a facility back in August. He was allowed to go to a halfway house even though Canadian authorities still believed he posed a threat to the public. At that time of his escape, Smith vowed that he would not be taken alive.

Luckily, he was recaptured without incident. So what do Canadian authorities do? Put him back in the same kind of facility he escaped from before. Was there no additional punishment at all for his first escape? Oh, I’m sorry, he received a suspended sentence for his escape or as they call it, being unlawfully at large.

What would they have done if he killed someone while he was unlawfully at large? If Canadian authorities still believe that he poses a threat to the public, then he needs to be put in a secure facility.

Dangerous offender back in custody:

The Taber school shooter, Todd Cameron Smith, was recaptured by Canadian authorities. What I find funny is under Canadian law he couldn’t be identified by the media because he was a juvenile when he killed Jason Lang and has been recaptured. But while he was loose, they were able to use his name and picture. So why back to not identifying him? You can’t unring the bell.

Police took the extraordinary step of getting permission from a court to disclose the man’s name and release his photo in an effort to locate him. That order was automatically rescinded as soon as he was returned to custody.

In case anyone missed it, his name is Todd Cameron Smith. Some Canadian citizens were not pleased with what happened.

Joseph Wamback, founder of the Canadian Crime Victim Foundation, said he was outraged such a violent convict was transferred out of a prison and to an open-custody facility located near several schoolyards and basketball courts.

“He is a convicted killer,” Wamback said.

“He has walked away from so-called supervised custody and he has left a note, saying that he will not be taken alive. We have placed the rights of scumbags and deviants ahead of the rights of innocent Canadians.”

I guess Canada is even worse than America when it comes to the killers having more rights than the victims.

Taber killer escapes custody:

I had almost forgotten about the Taber shooting. At the time, I didn’t have a website, as I had dismantled the original one in the wake of Columbine after receiving all the death threats and hate mail.

Only 8 days after Columbine, Todd Cameron Smith took a .22 caliber rifle to W.R. Myers High School in Taber, Alberta, Canada and shot and killed 17-year-old Jason Lang. Here’s a CNN article from around the time of the shooting. A judge originally ordered Smith held in closed custody for an indefinite period, so long as his time in jail didn’t exceed 10 years. However, earlier this year, he was released to a halfway house even though he still posed a threat to the public…

“The concerns remain with regard to the pleasure he derives from violence,” the Crown’s David Thompson quoted a psychiatric report as saying.

“He continues to pose a significant risk to the public.”

During the original trial, defense lawyers portrayed Smith as the victim of bullying only here’s the thing, his victim, Jason Lang, wasn’t a bully. According to Jason’s father, Rev. Dale Lang, Jason was against bullying…

“Ironically, one of the things that’s so sad is that Jason didn’t like bullying, and often tried to befriend kids who were picked on,” Mr. Lang said. “He was a good kid, and we miss him.”

Rev. Lang has even gone so far as to forgive his son’s killer and has been active in anti-bullying campaigns.

Another report says that Jason Lang did charity work in Mexico, building houses. Doesn’t sound like the bullying type to me.

So Todd Smith shot and killed someone who would have more than likely helped him, while his alleged tormentors are probably free. Thanks to the myth that started in Columbine about the Columbine shooters being bullied, shootings and shooting plots still occur to this day. Yes, bullying is a cancer in our school systems that needs to be addressed, but if Columbine, Taber, Santee, Red Lake, and Rocori didn’t stop bullying, neither will other school shootings.

As I’ve said before, these incidents have taken the focus away from bullying and put it on identifying would be shooters. So, in essence, it’s only made bullying worse. And like I’ve been saying for the past 6 years, killing someone, especially someone who had nothing to do with the bullying in the first place, is not an excuse nor a reason to kill people.

Anyway, back to the point of the article. Todd Cameron Smith has escaped from his halfway house and has vowed not to be taken alive…

Todd Cameron Smith, now 20, fled protective custody at 3:30 a.m. Monday, leaving a note in his room at the Hinks Dellcrest Centre.

It read: “I can’t be caged anymore. If they find me, they’ll have to kill me. . . . Bye. Sorry.”

The fact that this kid was given such a light sentence puzzles me. He shot and killed a random victim, and he was allowed to live in a halfway house? The kid should have been put away for life. Especially since one of the Canadian government’s own psychiatrists stated that Smith still posed a threat to the public.

I pray for his capture, and I pray that he doesn’t claim any more victims.