"SN teen faces charges after two killed at house party"

By Jim Windle

MT PLEASANT - What was supposed to be an 18th birthday party with a number of high school friends turned tragic at around 1:20 am Saturday morning, leaving two teens dead, a third in critical condition, and a 17-year-old Six Nations youth facing a number of serious motor vehicle related charges.

At around 1:20 am Saturday, an SUV with two occupants including the accused driver, slammed into a group of partiers getting ready to enter the car of 19-year-old designated driver Justin Spierenburg who had already taken one car load of partiers home and was loading up another.

Dead are Ciaran Milmine, 17, and Shawn McLaughlin, 18, who were pronounced dead at the scene. Kelly Myers-Gordon, 19, was listed in critical condition at Hamilton Health Sciences on Sunday, while Kristynn Harrot, 17, was treated at Brantford General Hospital for non-life threatening injuries and released.

The young offender, whose name cannot be made public, is facing two counts of impaired operation of a motor vehicle causing death; two counts of impaired operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm; two counts of exceeding 80 milligrams of blood alcohol causing death; two counts of exceeding 80 milligrams of blood alcohol causing bodily harm; failing to remain at the scene of an accident causing death; and failing to remain at the scene of an accident causing bodily harm.

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The new school year had just begun and the birthday party seemed to be a good op­portunity to get together with some old school friends and welcome some new ones into the circle.

There have been many conflicting reports published about the party itself, calling it everything from a "wild teenage party" to "pure chaos" to an "out of control house party". But Christina Beauregard, 43, of Burtch Road in Mt. Pleasant, who hosted her son's party at her home has a completely different recollection of the events that night.

She insists that, despite the fact that alcohol was be­ing consumed by underaged teens in her home, it was a well planned party with non­-drinking designated drivers arranged and was voluntarily closed down by the host a little after 1 pm.

"There was no chaos at that party," objects Beauregard. "It was my son's birthday party with a small group of friends. You know how kids text each other and soon it escalated in numbers. But everyone was well behaved."

According to Beauregard, at around 11:30 pm, she asked the partiers to turn the music down, which they did.

"They were all outside and I could hear them sing­ing happy birthday," she told Tekawennake. "At one point, a little after 1 am, I went outside to start shutting it down."

Beauregard says that, when the police had come to the house a bit earlier in response to a noise complaint, the of­ficer told her that all she had to do was turn off the music, that no one had to leave.

"I said, no, it's 1 am and it's time for them to go."

The officer asked about the designated drivers and told Beauregard they were leaving but would be checking the cars as they left to make sure there were no drunk drivers.

They were doing just that when, at 1:20 am, the SUV slammed into the group of partiers as they were leaving and drove off.

A few minutes after Beau-

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regard went back into the house after telling the partiers it was time to go home, she heard her husband shout that something had happened out front.

"I ran out to see three kids on the road," she recalls. "I called 911 and a lot of others did too. My husband (Dennis Warren) is a firefighter and he got someone doing CPR on one of them and he was working on another when police returned to the house. I was trying to keep the kids back from the situation."

Police were down the road from the party checking cars when a rookie officer saw a sight she will never forget.

"It was night time, and the officers thought they saw debris flying through the air from the car crash," said Ontario Provincial Police Const. Larry Plummer.

They chased the fleeing car and managed to stop it about one kilometer from the scene. That's when they were called back to the house where they discovered that what they thought was debris was actually the bodies of young people who had been hit.

Plummer calls the incident "one of the worst tragedies he have ever seen" in his 26 years as an OPP officer.

"It's just ironic. These kids were all doing the right thing," said Plummer. "The young man who was driving the parked car was doing such a fine job. This was his second round of passengers. He wasn't seriously injured. But he is just devastated - he saw his best friend die right in front of his eyes," added Plummer.

Police reported that, upon arrival back to the crash scene it had become bizarre with teens fighting amongst themselves and others collecting booze from cars parked in the area, even after the yellow police tape was put up around the scene of the crash.

Beauregard remembers a brief incident, but nothing like the chaotic scene officer Plummer reported.

"The only thing I saw was, just after they put a tarp over one of the victims, I heard someone say 'don't start fighting'," she recalls. "I went over to intervene and stood between the two. At that point the situation deescalated. That was just emotion and I didn't see any physical fighting going on."

Reports also say that the accused was told to leave the party earlier because he had been trying to create trouble.

But that was news to Beauregard as well.

"I am not aware of any incident where anyone was asked to leave," she told Tekawennake. "I went out to where the kids were several times and didn't see anything like that. I didn't witness any incident involving the accused and none of the kids I talked to when I was telling them it was time to go said anything at all about any fights or problems."

If there was a serious problem Beauregard believes she would have heard something about it.

Despite what some news reports have been intimating, Beauregard says there was no racial element to this story at all. Three of her children, including the son the party was for, are half native.

"It upsets me when I read some newspaper reports about this," says Beauregard. "A lot of them are just plain wrong."

The accused was in Brantford court Monday where he was released on bail.