Todd Cameron Smith
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Todd Cameron Smith is a Canadian man who was convicted for a 1999 school shooting.
On April 28, 1999, Smith, whom Minnesota Public Radio later described as a 14-year-old dropout who had been ostracized by other students, brought a sawed-off .22-calibre rifle to W.R. Myers High School, in Taber, Alberta. He shot at three students, hitting two of them and killing one—17-year-old Jason Lang. Smith was apprehended without a struggle and taken into custody by a police officer who was in the school at the time of the shooting.
It was the first school shooting since the infamous Columbine High School Massacre.
Smith was charged with one count of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder. The judge in the case refused the prosecutors' request to try Smith as an adult.
After Smith's arrest, a medical examination found he had a heart condition that required surgery. During the surgery, he suffered a stroke and went into a coma. After awakening from the coma, Smith had problems speaking and eating and suffered from diminished mental capacity.
In November 2000, Smith pleaded guilty to all three counts. He was sentenced to three years in prison and seven years of conditional supervision.
On March 16, 2005, Smith was transferred to a halfway house in Toronto. On August 15 of that year, Smith escaped from the halfway house, leaving behind a note saying he would not allow himself to be taken alive. However, he turned himself in to authorities the following day.
[edit] Publication of Smith's name
Under Canadian law, it is illegal for the media to publish the name of a juvenile convict. After Smith's escape, Toronto police obtained a judicial waiver allowing the department and media to publish information about him. However, the waiver lapsed upon Smith's recapture, putting Canadian media in the strange position of not being able to use a name or photograph they had used the previous day.
