Kelowna man cleaning handgun fires into apartment floor just missing sleeping teen

A 40-year-old Kelowna man, who fired a handgun through the floor of his Harvey Avenue apartment building at 2:30 a.m., said he was cleaning it.

In the apartment below him, his neighbours’ 17-year-old  daughter was in bed asleep, and the bullet missed her by just a few feet before ricocheting and lodging into a wall.

In a Kelowna courtroom, July 27, Judge Monica McParland noted that no one had given an explanation as to why Matthew John McLellan was cleaning his gun at that time in the morning.

It was a few days after Christmas 2023, and McLellan ’s six- and eight-year-old children were sleeping in the other room.

McLellan’s panicked downstairs neighbours called 911, and an emergency response team was dispatched to the apartment building.

When police arrived, they found half a dozen weapons in McLellan’s bedroom and a bullet hole in his bedroom floor.

He was later charged with multiple firearm offences.

Crown prosecutor Catherine Rezansoff read off a list of weapon infractions.

McLellan had licences for all the weapons, including a restricted class licence for two semi-automatic rifles.

There were also firearm storage issues.

“There were six long guns located in his bedroom on the floor. They were leaning against boxes, with the muzzles pointed towards the ceiling,” the Crown said.

“It was unsafe because the safety was off, and there was no trigger lock,” she said about numerous weapons.

Police found a spent 9 mm calibre cartridge case on the bedroom floor and unsecured ammunition. Gun cases were empty and in the closet.

McLellan had two registered restricted firearms, which weren’t at the property. Police gave him 24 hours to bring the weapons in, but he didn’t.

A week later, McLellan found one of the guns in his storage locker, but the other never turned up.

The court heard McLellan worked in the oil and gas industry, had no criminal record, and was previously married and had shared custody of their two children.

He pleaded guilty to a single charge of failing to store a firearm in accordance with regulations.

Citing his lack of criminal record, the Crown asked for 60 days’ house arrest, while defence lawyer Michael Stevens argued for a conditional discharge, meaning that he wouldn’t get a criminal record provided he passed probation.

However, Judge McParland noted comments McLellan had told a report writer the court proceedings were “unfair” on him.

“(McLellan said he) was set up by his ex-partner, stating she loaded a firearm at his residence during the Christmas holidays. He believes this was… premeditated to get him in trouble and have their children removed from his care and placed in hers, to receive money for child support and to substantiate false claims, he believes that she made to the (Ministry of Children and Family Development),” the judge said.

“McLellan did not express remorse or worry for his children asleep in the home at the time, or that he may have harmed another person in a different unit of the building,” Judge McParland said.

The judge said she was concerned about these comments.

The defence argued McLellan had considerable emotional stress at the time and had since had a change of heart.

“I didn’t get a chance to apologize to the families that I affected,” McLellan told the court. “I hope that I can give back to the community and work through this all.”

Judge McParland refused a conditional discharge, sentencing McLellan to two months house arrest, saying that was at the low end.

“This… is a stark and clear example of precisely why we have rules about how these weapons need to be stored,” the judge said.