Undercover officer who gave ride to man accused of selling firearm to boy who killed 2 Edmonton police officer testifies

An undercover officer was one of two witnesses who testified at the trial of Dennis Okeymow, accused of selling the gun to the teen who shot two Edmonton police

The trial continued on Tuesday for the man accused of selling the gun to a teenage boy who killed two Edmonton Police Service officers and left a Pizza Hut worker with life-altering injuries.

Dennis Okeymow is charged with manslaughter, criminal negligence causing death, and criminal negligence causing bodily harm in the case.

On March 12, 2023, the teen walked into a Pizza Hut near his apartment and shot the employee in the head.

On March 16, 2023, constables Travis Jordan and Brett Ryan were shot and killed while responding to a family dispute call at the Inglewood apartment where the teen lived with his parents.

The teen also shot his mother, who survived, before fatally shooting himself.

According to the agreed statement of facts, Okeymow knew the shooter between 2021 and 2023 and sold him controlled substances – including cannabis, cocaine, and psilocybin – during that time.

An undercover officer was the first person to testify on Tuesday.

He testified that he struck up a conversation with Okeymow while posing as a person in custody at the Strathcona RCMP Detachment where Okeymow was also in custody on unrelated matters in July 2023.

The officer gave Okeymow a ride home after the pair was released.

He testified that Okeymow told him he knew the person who shot and killed the officers and wounded the Pizza Hut employee.

An audio recording of the conversation was also played in the courtroom.

“He was like, weird,” Okeymow said of the teenage shooter.

“I think he was depressed, now that I think about it.”

He also told the officer he owned multiple guns.

According to the agreed statement of facts, Okeymow did not have a gun licence and was under a court-ordered firearms prohibition in 2023.

The officer testified that he made contact with Okeymow again at a later date in an attempt to buy a gun from him, but the transaction never took place.

During cross examination Okeymow’s lawyer argued that Okeymow had seen media coverage detailing the teen shooter’s mental health issues by the time the interaction with the undercover officer took place.

The second witness to testify was an RCMP officer and firearms expert.

He spoke about what purpose a person would have for a rifle like the one used by the shooter.

He also testified about the process of selling and transferring a non-restricted firearm in Canada.

He noted that the seller of the firearm must be reasonably sure the buyer isn’t suffering from mental health issues and isn’t impaired by alcohol or drugs.

A video of a test fire from the gun used by the shooter was played in the courtroom as part of his testimony, it showed the rifle could fire 11 shots in 2.53 seconds.

According to the agreed statement of facts, 11 shots were fired from the gun by the shooter, one during the Pizza Hut shooting, and 10 during the shooting of the two EPS officers.

The trial is expected to wrap up on Thursday with closing arguments.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Amanda Anderson.