If Ronald Teneycke is where he should have been – behind bars – Wayne Belleville would never have met him and wouldn’t have suffered severe physical and emotional pain.
Teneycke is the prolific offender who was captured late last July after an intense police manhunt.
Teneycke committed several crimes over several days, the most serious pointing and firing a shotgun and wounding Belleville – a man who was kind enough to pick up a stranger in his pickup truck.
At the time of this incident, Teneycke was serving an intermittent sentence for possessing explosives. Instead of reporting to jail as he was supposed to do, this career criminal went on the lam and went on a rampage that scared citizens in Oliver, Osoyoos and most of the South Okanagan.
Early last week, Teneycke surprised many when he pleaded guilty to numerous serious charges, including robbing Eastside Grocery in Oliver and dischargng a firearm with the intent to wound or disfigure.
Belleville believes – and who could blame him – that Teneycke should have been charged with attempted murder.
Considering that Teneycke shot him in the back and continued to point his rifle at him, forcing him to run like a wounded animal into the bush, it’s almost impossible to comprehend how an attempted murder charge hasn’t been laid in this case.
Belleville, in an emotional interview with the Oliver Chronicle, detailed how he thought he might not live through this ordeal and how difficult it has been to recover after losing his spleen and a partially paralyzed lung in the ordeal.
After his guilty plea, the Crown announced that it is strongly considering to move forward with an application to have Teneycke declared a dangerous offender.
If declared a dangerous offender, Teneycke could remain behind bars for the rest of his natural life.
Belleville said anything short of a dangerous offender designation should be the subject of public outrage.
“He has terrorized the South Okanagan for far too long,” he said.
No one could have said it better.
Everyone in life deserves a second change, but dangerous criminals like Ronald Teneycke, who have proven time and time again that they can not be rehabilitated and pose a serious danger to public safety, must not be given any more second chances.
Wayne Belleville is a good, hard-working family man who almost lost his life because he tried to be a nice guy. The miserable violent thug who fired a bullet into his back and then pointed a gun at his head and wounded him badly isn’t a nice guy. And he should spend the rest of his life caged in a prison cell.
