Man says brother was in wrong place, wrong time at time of fatal shooting

The last time William Boushie ever saw his brother Colten, he begged him to stay home.

When Colten refused, William got mad and gave him the silent treatment, even as Colten kissed him on the head and told his older brother he loved him.

“I sensed something was wrong because that was unusual,” said William in an exclusive interview with News Talk Radio. “It was unusual for my brother just to kiss me on the head at random and tell me he loved me and walk out the door, like it was his final goodbye.”

Colten was with his girlfriend and some friends, heading out to a lake near Maymont for the day. William says he wanted his brother to stay home because he was intoxicated and with friends William didn’t approve of.

Later that day, Colten was shot to death on a farm near Biggar. He arrived in a vehicle with four other people, some of whom say they were at the farm for help after blowing a tire.

William was at home on the Red Pheasant First Nation with their mother when the RCMP came to tell him the news that his younger brother didn’t survive a shooting and that his body remained on the scene as an investigation got under way.

“At first I didn’t believe it until they gave some description of him and I knew it was him,” William said. “My mind blurred up, my heart dropped, I lost control of myself.”

RCMP say some of the people in the vehicle are being investigated for related thefts. William says he is aware of that, but doesn’t know much more.

“I don’t associate with people that do stuff like that.”

William believes his brother wasn’t involved in any crimes.

“My brother was not a thief. My brother was not a liar. My brother was an honest man and he was at the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people.”

William says Colten, who was 22-years-old, had just completed firefighter training on the reserve and was planning to attend college in the fall. He wanted to pursue his passion of cooking by studying culinary arts.

Gerald Stanley, 54, is charged with the second-degree murder of Colten.

Some of the reaction to the shooting is splitting along social lines, underscoring tension between landowners and neighbouring First Nations, which in this case, William says is escalating.

“(Farmers) are just leery of people in general, but also First Nations, too, because there’s been occurrences with First Nations that stole from them before.”