One of the last memories Ashley Ryan has of her husband is wiping blood off his face shortly after he was shot while responding to a domestic disturbance call in Edmonton four years ago.
Ryan, who worked as a paramedic for about 13 years, recounted the traumatic moment in court Tuesday, reading her victim impact statement in the sentencing hearing of 22-year-old Dennis Okeymow.
Const. Brett Ryan and his partner, Const. Travis Jordan, were killed in March 2023 when they arrived at an apartment building.
They were ambushed and shot by 16-year-old Roman Shewchuk. The boy then turned the gun on himself.
Court heard that weeks earlier Okeymow sold the semi-automatic rifle to the teen, who had a history of mental illness.
Okeymow was found guilty in May on 10 charges, including three counts of manslaughter and three counts of criminal negligence causing the deaths of the officers and the shooter.
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Ashley Ryan told court she was at the Royal Alexandra Hospital when Jordan was wheeled in. She was trying to revive him when, moments later, an ambulance pulled up with her husband.
“The blood-curdling screams that I let out when I realized that it was Brett on that stretcher will never not echo in that ambulance bay,” said Ryan, who was 15 weeks pregnant at the time with their first child.
“I cleaned up my husband’s blood and brain matter off his face and his beard. So when our family and friends came to say goodbye, they didn’t have to witness the carnage done to him and see the way that I saw him for the last time.”
She said because of Okeymow’s actions, she now has to live with those “images being forever etched in my mind.”
She said she has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression, and she can no longer work in the career she loved.
With treatment, she has “basic human functioning” and can be there for her son, she added.
“I now have to be both mom and dad — the role Brett was looking forward to and so excited for.”
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Her impact statement was one of eight submitted in the hearing.
The Crown is seeking a prison sentence of 12 to 14 years, while the defence asked for 4 1/2 years of time already served, with three years of probation.
Court of King’s Bench Justice John Little is to make a decision at a later date.
Laurie Ryan told the judge that her son’s death also made her end her career in health care.
The former emergency room nurse said that upon seeing her son’s lifeless body in the hospital, she started performing CPR and hoped he would start breathing.
“For 35 years, I walked into emergency departments where people were frightened, injured, suffering and sometimes fighting for their own lives. I knew what to do,” she said.
“But when it was my own son lying there, all those years of experience could not save him … that helplessness is something I struggle with every day.”
She said she can no longer step into a hospital without being overwhelmed with grief.
Annie Jordan said the devastating loss of her husband was all because someone illegally sold a firearm.
“A single act can send shock waves through countless lives,” she told court.
The trial heard that Shewchuk’s mother had called police for help when her son strangled her. She was also shot and injured when her son opened fire on the officers.
Days earlier, the teen used the same gun to shoot a stranger in the head at a pizza shop. Richard Albert survived but suffered serious and permanent injuries.
Okeymow apologized in court to the officers’ families and the police service.
“I understand that words won’t change what happened that day, but I apologize. I’m sorry,” he said.
Prosecutor Adam Garrett said Okeymow should have realized the risk of illegally selling a .22-calibre semi-automatic rifle and 80 rounds of ammunition to Shewchuk.
Okeymow also knew or was “wilfully blind” to the teen’s mental health issues and regularly sold him drugs, Garrett said.
He added that when Okeymow heard about the shooting at the restaurant, and thought Shewchuk could be the gunman, he didn’t warn anyone.
Jamil Sawani, Okeymow’s lawyer, said his client was only 18 when he was charged and that the sentence the Crown is suggesting would “consume the rest of his young adult life.”
Sawani presented parts of his client’s pre-sentencing Indigenous background report, indicating that Okeymow’s family was upended by the residential school system.
The lawyer said Okeymow’s mother grew up without her parents and didn’t know how to be a mother.
Okeymow was “born into tragedy,” sent twice to foster care and witnessed his mother try to kill herself. She also taught him how to sell drugs, said Sawani.
But he said his client has made progress with his life while in custody, by reconnecting to his Indigenous culture and completing high school.
“The deaths of Const. Jordan and Const. Ryan cannot be undone, the death of Mr. Shewchuk cannot be undone,” Sawani said.
“What remains in the court’s power is whether this tragedy claims one other promise of a life that could be different.”
