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Iqaluit jury finds former Cambridge Bay resident guilty on three counts of second-degree murder, two counts of attempted murder
NUNATSIAQ NEWS
(Updated 11:20 a.m., June 9)

CHRIS WINDEYER AND JIM BELL

Following about eight hours of deliberations June 8, a six-man, six-woman jury found Chris Bishop guilty on three counts of second-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder, in relation to a bloody shooting incident that took place Jan. 6. 2007 in Cambridge Bay.

The three murder convictions relate to the deaths of Kevin Komaksiut, 21, and Keith Atatahak, 28, of Cambridge Bay, as well as Dean Costa, 29, of Edmonton. The two attempted murder convictions relate to the wounding of Logan Pigalak and Antoinette Bernhardt, who Bishop shot during the same incident.

Bishop, 24, fired at all five people with a 7.62 millimetre Russian-designed semi-automatic assault rifle loaded with an illegal 30-shot clip, after they smashed Bishop’s door down and entered his housing unit in Cambridge Bay in an apparent attempt to assault him.

“It’s hard, but I thank God for our justice system. It’s a good system,” Kugluktuk mayor Ernie Bernhardt, a former MLA, told reporters.

Bernhardt’s daughter, Antoinette, suffered gunshot wounds in the incident, and was the common-law spouse of Keith Atatahak.

Scott Cowan, Bishop’s defence lawyer, said he was surprised at the verdict.

Cowan had mounted an aggressive defence based on Bishop’s right to defend himself against the five intruders, whose attempted home invasion he described as the “cowardly, criminal action of a gang of thugs.

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