Update: Calgary Cop Killer To Be Sentenced as Adult
The killer, who cannot be identified because he was 17 at the time, was only 11 days shy of turning 18
3 months ago I wrote this:
Affirmative Action in Jail Sentencing
On December 31, 2020, a 17-year old man in Calgary was pulled over for a routine traffic violation by 37-year old police officer Sgt. Andrew Harnett. After being stopped for ~45 minutes, the man fled the traffic stop with Harnett attached to the vehicle, dragging Harnett into oncoming traffic, where he was hit by a car and died. The fleeing man left Harnett’s corpse on the cold pavement, went home, slept, and then turned himself in to police the next day.
This article gained more traction than I expected, thanks to
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/
who linked it on their front page and accounted for 21% of my traffic.
3 days ago,
reported on the same affirmative action in the Canadian justice system.
Although I was pleased to have been the first to write about this subject, their article delves much deeper into the topic, garnered more attention, and is arguably better crafted than my own piece. Moreover, it incorporates numerous new facts and details that were previously unknown to me, which is a testament to the authors' extensive original reporting.
According to my internal Substack metrics, 15% of you already subscribe to the Free Press, so it makes sense that our subject matter would overlap.
Anyways, remember my affirmative action article? About the slain cop?
Yesterday, May 10th, 2023, we received a major update. The judge just ruled that the killer — whose name is withheld because he was 11 days short of being 18 at the time — will be sentenced as an adult.
“He may have already been planning his 18th birthday party, that’s how close we are to law considering him to be an adult … He was acting like an adult and he was 11 days shy of being one …If this offence had occurred just 11 days later, this discussion with all due respect wouldn’t be happening, … This wasn’t a youth and adult situation, it was two peers ... The was all him. He was the leader of this offender. He was the driver of the vehicle and in control of so much of it. … His moral blameworthiness is through the roof.”
— Successful argument made by Crown Prosecutor Michael Ewenson
“I have a hard time seeing hope for change if he goes through the adult penitentiary system.. he is easily influenced by peers and would likely “glob” onto a negative group of individuals in an adult prison.”
— Losing argument made by defense lawyer who brought in a psychologist to argue that the killer had the moral culpability of a child
Keegan Metz, a former colleague and friend of the slain officer, addressed the offender in court and referred to him as “the man and not the boy.”
“Your actions that New Year’s Eve have forever changed the lives of everyone who was fortunate enough to know Andrew. Your arrogant and strategic actions in fleeing from the police robbed us of Andrew, while simultaneously snatching him from our lives like a thief. Regardless of how long your imprisonment is, if you do not accept accountability and own up to your actions, you will be a prisoner forever, a prisoner within yourself.”
A “prisoner within yourself”. Deep words.
While determining that the killer was an adult, the judge referred to his actions as "deliberate," which is a strange choice of words since the offender's charges were downgraded to manslaughter by the Liberal judge in the first place exactly because it was a heat-of-the-moment mistake. Now it is “deliberate”? Pick a lane!
Now that the offender is being charged as an adult, the Crown Prosecutor is asking for 11-13 years in prison, which is still not a significant penalty for taking a police officer's life, but I guess it is better than the 3-year sentence he would have received if the judge had ruled today that he was a child. The final sentence will be handed down on May 31.
“You are a cruel, selfish coward … You had multiple opportunities to change the course of your future, our future and most importantly Andrew’s future, but you didn’t,” said one of the dead cop’s brothers in a victim impact statement.
“You just didn’t stop, you didn’t prevent this from happening…. You ended so many dreams and created a nightmare that will never cease to exist,” said his other brother.
“I was forced to navigate my pregnancy alone during an already isolating global pandemic, prepare for the arrival of our baby alone, and ultimately sat again in a hospital room alone without Andrew to give birth to our son … It takes an incredibly morally inept person to watch someone fight for their life, throw them into oncoming traffic and leave them dying in the road. To be clear, this was no accident, ” said the dead cop’s widow.
Here is how one brother reacted on Twitter:
Sgt. Harnett now has a police dog named after him.
Sgt. Harnett grew up in Hagersville (population 3,059), a small town in Ontario.
Hagersville named a park after him, “Sgt. Andrew Harnett Memorial Park.”
“Today, with the naming of this park in his honour, we need to remember that just as he used to run through here as a boy and teenager, the echoes of his spirit are here to remind future generations ‘follow your heart and pursue your dream, remember that great people often come from small places.’”
I looked up the park on Google Maps. It looks like a beautiful park.
If you want to donate in Sgt. Harnett’s memory, click here to donate to the Hagersville food bank.
Great job covering this and drawing attention to this obscene pattern in the criminal justice system of treating psychopathic murderers like fun-loving kids because acknowledging evil as evil undercuts a fashionable political narrative. The decision to charge him as an adult (as if he would have suddenly developed a conscience in 11 days) is at least some silver lining to this otherwise horrifically tragic story.