The mother of a man on trial for opening fire on the Vanderhoof RCMP detachment 1 1/2 years ago gave an account Tuesday of the trouble they had managing his mental health issues over the months and days leading up to the incident.
Paul Nicholas Russell stands accused of nine charges, including counts of attempted murder with a firearm and mischief endangering life from the Nov. 25, 2021, event in the community 100 kilometres west of Prince George.
Testifying on behalf of defence counsel, Kathy-Lynn Russell said her son's excessive drinking had been a source of tension for several years. Then late one night in the summer of 2021, he left a message on his parents' voicemail saying he had been talking to his deceased uncle and could see COVID particles floating in the air.
Her son, the oldest of three children and who goes by the name "Nick," was taken to the hospital in Vanderhoof and, with his consent, he was admitted into the psychiatric ward at University Hospital of Northern British Columbia in Prince George.
"At that point the doctor thought his drinking was causing his hallucinations, but he was still confused for all of July," she told the court and went on to say Nick went so far as to call police on himself. He was arrested under the Mental Health Act and was back in hospital for a further 5-6 days.
But more delusions and instances of strange behaviour followed. In answer, he was prescribed a medication to treat a suspected dopamine imbalance.
"That seemed to settle Nick sort of," she said. "But he was kind of slow and sluggish and had a lot of troubles with short-term memory."
By about the end of September, he stopped taking the medication. By mid-October, he was on a different medication but continued to make "odd choices" such as dropping off a set of antlers and his passport at the RCMP detachment and generally had trouble following through on everyday tasks.
Russell renewed taking the medication he was originally prescribed but by his mother's estimation only half the amount he was supposed to consume.
On the evening before the day of the incident, Russell was at his parents home to help his father with a task. But he seemed confused and unable to grasp what they were supposed to do. A confrontation followed when his parents raised concern that he might have been drinking and had not kept in touch with them.
"He got quite upset," Kathy-Lynn Russell told the court. "He said he was trying and he left. I wouldn't say he was angry but he was upset."
Later that night, she and her husband drove over to his house to make sure he was at home but did not go inside out of concern that would upset him even more.
During cross examination, she confirmed her son had accumulated a collection of firearms over the years but could not say how many he owned. Crown counsel David Jardine suggested a combination of up to 26 guns and long guns.
When the signs of mental health issues began to surface, she said she and her husband talked him into turning over what they thought were all the keys to the safe when he kept the guns, the court heard.
Some five days before the incident, the firearms registry left a message on their phone saying their son might have to get clearance from a doctor to keep the weapons. Why the message was left with his parents, his mother said she could not say but when they told Nick, he appeared calm.
"Was he angry about it?" Jardine asked. "No, he just said OK. He had also disclosed in July that he had them, when he was arrested."
Closing arguments from Crown and defence counsels are scheduled for Wednesday.
