Dolain Mwamba pleaded guilty to firearms offences and admitted he felt “like a dumb—” for losing his temper and firing his gun at a stranger in a Tim Hortons drive-thru in March.
Mwamba, 38, was initially charged with attempted murder after the March 9 shooting at the Esso gas station and Tim Hortons Express franchise at 2545 Baseline Road.
He instead pleaded guilty to lesser offences of possessing a loaded, restricted handgun and discharging the firearm “with intent to maim, wound or disfigure” the victim.
The victim was not struck by the single bullet as he drove away from the scene and escaped the confrontation unscathed.
Mwamba’s female companion — who was casually pumping gas when the shot was fired — was initially charged with weapons-related offences, but those charges were dropped.
Mwamba was under a lifetime firearms ban at the time. He was convicted of drug trafficking in 2010, when a judge imposed a 10-year weapons prohibition. That was extended to a lifetime ban in 2012 when he was convicted of a single count of possessing drugs for the purpose of trafficking.
When he was arrested at his home shortly after the March 9 shooting, officers brought him to the police station, where they discovered he was carrying 13.6 grams of cocaine.
In his sentencing decision, Ontario Court Justice David Berg said that was a quantity “exceeding the amount intended for personal consumption.”
Mwamba pleaded guilty to possessing the cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, and also pleaded guilty to breaching the firearms ban.
“Mr. Mwamba was bound by two orders of prohibition. He ignored them. Not only did he possess a restricted firearm, he then used it during a fit of anger,” Berg wrote in his ruling.
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The judge cited the “gratuitous nature of the shooting” as an aggravating factor in rendering a six-year prison sentence.
“What he did was an unreasonable escalation of an argument or an exchange of insults,” Berg wrote.
According to the judge’s summary of the facts, Mwamba cocked his gun and fired one shot after getting into a “short verbal argument” with a man who was sitting in his vehicle at the drive-thru.
Security video captured the entire sequence as Mwamba and a woman are seen pulling into the Esso station and the woman begins pumping gas while Mwamba is seen walking across the parking lot and talking on a cell phone.
It was around the same time, in the middle of the day, when the victim was seen arriving at the Tim Hortons side of the gas station to place an order at the drive-thru window.
After placing his order, the victim was seen driving forward while Mwamba was walking towards him. The man “began questioning Mwamba and a short verbal argument began,” according to the judge’s summary.
“Mwamba quickly produced a handgun from his satchel bag and racked it. (The victim,) seeing the gun and fearing for his life, quickly drove away,” the judge wrote in his summary.
As the man was driving, Mwamba fired one round at the car, striking the driver’s side door before the driver “made his escape.”
Immediately after the shooting, Mwamba was seen on CCTV video footage returning to the gas pump and “casually getting back into the vehicle.”
Police were able to track the vehicle to a home on Pathway Private, about 650 metres away from the scene of the shooting.
Police surrounded the home and Mwamba and his female companion were arrested without incident.
A search warrant was granted and police found clothing and a satchel bag Mwamba was seen wearing in the surveillance video.
The satchel contained a 9mm Luger PMC handgun with the serial number scratched off.
It was still loaded with one cartridge in the chamber and 11 rounds in the 17-capacity magazine when it was recovered by police.
Berg said Mwamba had taken accountability for his actions and that he understood the gravity of the offence.
According to a pre-sentence report, Mwamba acknowledged he “committed a dangerous crime” and said he “feels like a dumb—” because the situation could have been avoided. He expressed remorse and apologized to the victim.
“He highlighted that he is thankful that the victim did not get hurt,” Berg wrote in his ruling. The judge also praised Mwamba for delivering a speech to the court apologizing for the incident.
“I was impressed not only by the sentiments that he expressed but the language he used in doing so,” Berg wrote. “Mr. Mwamba is clearly an intelligent young man with significant potential for rehabilitation.”
Crown attorneys D’Arcy Wilson and Malcolm Savage called for an eight-year sentence, while Mwamba’s defence lawyer, Neil Weinstein, countered with five to six years.
Berg imposed a six-year prison term and cited Mwamba’s early guilty plea, his remorse and pro-social tendencies as mitigating factors in the sentence.
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