Woman pleads guilty to manslaughter in slaying of man she believed ‘ratted out’ her friend

A Winnipeg woman has admitted responsibility for her role in the murder of a man she believed had “ratted out” a friend to police.

Breanna Bruyere, 26, pleaded guilty Wednesday to manslaughter in the March 2024 shotgun killing of 56-year-old Edgar Allan Bear.

Bruyere, who remains in custody, will be sentenced at a later date following the completion of court-ordered reports examining her background. Court heard Crown and defence lawyers will be recommending she be sentenced to nine years in prison.

Court heard on the day of the killing, Bear had been involved in a robbery with three other men, after which one of the men was arrested.

Bruyere blamed Bear for the man’s arrest, believing he had “ratted” the man out to police, Crown attorney Kaley Tschetter told court, reading from an agreed statement of facts.

Bruyere lured Bear to a Selkirk Avenue home where she was waiting with co-accused Maxim Garneau.

Before Bear arrived, Garneau asked Bruyere to give him a gun, which she did, Tschetter said.

Garneau “ask(ed) her for a better one, stating that this one would only make him limp,” Tschetter said.

Bruyere returned with a sawed-off shotgun.

Garneau was “pleased” with the firearm and said, “he will either be shooting Edgar Bear in the knees or killing him.”

When Bear arrived, Garneau forced him to his knees. A woman in the house tried to come between them before Garneau fired the shotgun over her shoulder, striking Bear in the head.

Garneau and several others in the house fled, as Bruyere called 911, claiming Bear had been shot by an unknown male.

Bruyere provided two more misleading statements to police before she was arrested a week later.

Garneau previously pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for killing Bear, one of three men he shot dead within a span of three months. He was sentenced last May to life in prison with no chance of parole for 18 years.

Garneau had just met Daniel Raymond Garvey-Rodriquez, his first victim, when the two men got into a heated argument at a Spence Street apartment suite on Sept. 10, 2023.

The argument escalated and turned physical, with Garvey-Rodriquez disarming Garneau of a firearm and holding a knife to his neck before a male resident separated them and ordered them to leave.

Garneau took a cab to a College Avenue apartment building where he and two companions waited in a stairwell for 20 minutes before Garvey-Rodriquez arrived. When Garvey-Rodriquez opened the door, Garneau shot him once in the chest, killing him.

On March 16, 2024, Garneau, his then-girlfriend and a second woman took a cab to a Manitoba Avenue home, where he saw his second victim, 35-year-old Robert Clayton Smith, in a bedroom with a woman.

Garneau pulled out a firearm and the two men argued before Garneau shot Smith two times in the head.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca