Alleged shooter at trial

Steven Gallagher’s ex-wife and the mother of three of his children said he was definitely involved in a scuffle with a group of her friends on Canada Day 2022.

However, she doesn’t know who fired a handgun that hit and wounded a member of a group of her friends.

The woman testified via video at his trial Thursday in Penticton as she did not want to see Gallagher in person.

Gallagher, 32, has pleaded not guilty to one count of aggravated assault, one count of pointing and a firearm and one count of discharging a firearm in relation to a violent incident at the popular White Sands beach on Osoyoos Lake on July 1, 2022.

Under questioning from Crown attorney Nashina Devji, the woman testified she changed her name after leaving Gallagher in 2020 following an 11-year relationship and she also moved away after spending her entire life in the South Okanagan.

She and a group of friends had decided to visit the popular White Sands beach on Canada Day to celebrate Canada’s birthday and have a good time, she said.

When her group arrived, she was surprised to see Gallagher and a small group of his friends who were also there, she said.

They had ended their relationship and she hadn’t talked to him in some time, except for matters relating to their three children, she said.

“I just wanted to go to the beach for Canada Day... it was a very popular beach,” she said. “There was a lot of boats and music. I had been there a lot of times prior.”

Since Gallagher was arrested relating to this incident, she hasn’t talked to him at all, she testified.

Gallagher is currently serving time in a federal penitentiary in relation to several other violent crimes over the past three years.

When she parked her vehicle and dropped her group off, she was surprised to see that Gallagher and his friends were also at the same beach only a few feet away.

“I didn’t really want to talk,” she said. “But I thought I would try and be civil, I guess.”

She immediately recognized Gallagher, a male cousin of his and the cousin’s girlfriend, she said.

She said hello to Gallagher and his group and didn’t think it was a big deal and felt everyone should be able to have a good time without any issues, she said.

“We wanted to have fun too,” she said. “I didn’t see any need to make a big deal about it.”

They had just recently broke up, but felt they could be “grown up about it” and enjoy Canada Day without any kind of trouble, she said.

She told all the members of her group, including friends of friends she had never met before, that Gallagher was her ex-husband, she said.

A girlfriend got a call to pick up more people at a nearby campground to join them, so she and the girlfriend drove to pick them up in the girlfriend’s vehicle, she said.

They returned 20 minutes later and “then it all happened,” she said in relation to a sudden burst of violence amongst the two different groups.

“It all went downhill,” she said.

Two men from her group had gotten into a shoving match with Gallagher and another man and parties from both sides tried to intervene to try and calm things down, she said.

“It went back and forth ... I’m not sure who started it,” she said.

Because the scuffle was taking place right near her vehicle, she was worried her vehicle could get damaged, she said.

Without warning, a loud gunshot could be heard and she saw a young man from her group had been struck and was laying on the ground, she testified.

There were hundreds of people on the beach at the moment shots were fired, she said.

She decided to round up all the people in her group and leave the scene “as quickly as possible,” she said.

Gallagher and his group also loaded into another vehicle and left the scene, she said.

“Everyone scattered when it happened,” she said.

She drove her group to a nearby campground and told everyone to get out as she was very upset at what had happened and wasn’t pleased there was blood all over her vehicle, she said.

“I was flustered in the moment,” she said. “I was upset that he was bleeding all over my car... I don’t mean to sound blunt,” she said.

While driving away from the campground, she was stopped by police at gunpoint and they wanted to make sure Gallagher was not in the vehicle and ask her other questions, she testified.

She told them she had seen Gallagher leave the scene with his group of friends in another vehicle, she said.

She didn’t see who fired the gun, she said.

Under cross-examination by Hopkins, she testified one of her best friends at the scene commented that Gallagher was responsible for the shooting, which upset her because neither she or her friend could confirm who was responsible, she said.

“I was upset that she assumed” it was Gallagher who fired the gun, she said. “I was upset she presumed he was responsible.”

She also admitted her girlfriend didn’t approve of her having a relationship with Gallagher for some time.

“She and a lot of people didn’t want us to have contact or to be together,” she said.

When Hopkins suggested blaming the shooting on Gallagher would be a great way to “get away from” him, perhaps permanently, she testified her friend may have said those words.

“She may have said something like that,” she said.

When another woman in her group told her good friend that Gallagher was responsible for the shooting, the good friend commented “I can’t believe he did that.”

She replied “you for sure saw it” again suggesting she shouldn’t make such accusations without actual eye witness confirmation, she said.

Gallagher and his defence counsel David Hopkins had originally opted for a jury trial, but changed their mind last Friday and elected to have the case heard by judge alone.

Justice Shelley C. Fitzpatrick is the presiding judge in this trial.

The trial continued Friday and will resume next week in Penticton for several days.

This article is republished as part of Canada's Local Journalism Initiative