Dartmouth woman gets 4-year prison term for firing at paramedics, police

A Dartmouth woman who fired an airsoft gun at first responders near the Moncton airport last January has been sentenced to four years in prison.

Morgan Maryanne Connors, 25, pleaded guilty in early September to seven charges, including discharging an airsoft gun, two counts of uttering death threats, two counts of pointing an airsoft gun, dangerous driving, and possession of a prohibited weapon, brass knuckles. 

At her sentencing Monday, Connors agreed to the facts laid out by Crown prosecutor Annie St-Jacques.

St-Jacques described a chaotic scene after first responders were dispatched to a single-vehicle car accident on Jan. 5, just after 2:30 p.m.

A black SUV had crashed into a wooded area on Adélard-Savoie Boulevard, near the airport.

As RCMP drove to the scene, they got a report that the driver, later identified as Connors, had fired at the first responders already there.

Pointed airsoft gun at firefighter

St-Jacques said one of the firefighters described seeing a woman leaning over the seat of the SUV and hearing a loud pop. 

Connors struck the back window of the vehicle until it shattered, the prosecutor said.

The woman inside the vehicle pointed a black gun toward a firefighter and, holding it with two hands, said: "If you get any closer, I'm going to kill you."

The first responders then moved away and waited for police.

Airsoft guns fire plastic or resin pellets and can resemble actual firearms but have less power.

Fired again after Mounties arrived

St-Jacques said that when police arrived at the crash site, one officer saw the woman with what appeared to be a gun in her hand, holding it up and at times pointing it out the window.

When Connors was told she was under arrest, she fired three to five shots. Shortly after, she fired another four or five shots.

Connors was then shot by a police officer and yelled "I'm done, I'm done."

She was taken to hospital, where she spent several weeks.

Paramedic Bethany Hunt, who was there that day, read a victim impact statement in court.

"As a paramedic … I go to help people at the worst time of need, and I feel I was violated in being put in harm's way myself," she said. 

Hunt said she treated Connors in a professional manner but totally broke down at the hospital afterward. She has had to take time off because of the experience and has used 75 hours of her sick-bank hours.

"So if I were to get hurt at work or sick, I no longer have that in my bank," she said. "Now I had to use that because of her misgivings and her poor judgment and for the events that happened that day."  

Hunt, who has been a paramedic for 29 years, said later that the sentence given to Connors was not adequate.  

"I feel it was a little too lenient on her."  

Hunt said even though Connors had wielded an airsoft gun, it looked like a real gun.

"I feel that [with] so much gun violence around, we need to take this more serious," Hunt said.

Traumatic for first responders

Provincial court Judge Lucie Mathurin said the firefighters and paramedics who went to the crash site that day "certainly suffered quite a bit of trauma."

Mathurin said it was also a traumatic event for police, who have already suffered the loss of fellow officers in Moncton. She was referring to a shooting in Moncton on June 4, 2014, in which three Mounties were killed and two others were injured.

Connors might not be from this area, but there have been "a lot of losses incurred in relation to some type of similar actions," the judge said. "Mind you, it was not an airsoft gun."

Mathurin said she was baffled by Connors's actions, which blocked traffic and closed the airport for a while.

Connors spoke briefly, saying that she felt remorse, that she was in a bad situation at the time, and had been a victim of domestic abuse.

Before her guilty pleas, Connor had faced 13 charges related to the confrontation near the airport.

On Monday, she also pleaded guilty to possession of more than 400 grams of cannabis.

The Crown said several civilian witnesses gave statements to police about Connors's dangerous driving minutes before she went off the road.

St-Jacques also told the court that during their search of the crime scene, police found a black airsoft gun in the snow near the rear passenger door of the black SUV.

During a further search two days later, police found brass knuckles — a prohibited weapon — in the front driver's seat. St-Jacques said various bottles of liquor and used syringes were found "throughout the vehicle."

Concurrent sentences

In the trunk of the vehicle, police found freezer bags containing a total of 436 grams of cannabis.  

Connor was sentenced to four years in prison for discharging the airsoft gun, three months on each count of uttering threats, six months on each count of pointing the airsoft gun, six months for dangerous driving and six months for possession of the brass knuckles.

The sentences are to be served concurrently. 

On the cannabis charge, which had been dealt with separately, Connors got three months, also to be served concurrently.