“The trauma I felt watching my son die in front of my eyes is unbearable,” she said. “And I am so sorry that happened.”
A Port Alberni woman convicted of manslaughter in the shooting death of her adult son two years ago has been sentenced to four years in prison.
Justice Margot Fleming said although she did not consider Dittmer to be a credible witness, she believes Dittmer did not intend to kill her son. Based on the evidence, Fleming was satisfied that Dittmer committed the unlawful act of careless use of a firearm. She found that Dittmer’s handling of the rifle was objectively dangerous and a significant contributing cause of McPhee’s death.
Dittmer and her son were still fearful for their safety and set up security cameras. McPhee had several firearms and a significant amount of ammunition. He insisted on putting the rifle upstairs under his mother’s bed in case of an attack. Dittmer had a rough idea how to use the firearm. She knew it had a safety and knew it had ammunition in the buttstock.
On Aug. 29, 2021, Dittmer, Kazakoff and McPhee went to Great Central Lake to check on crayfish traps. McPhee drank a lot of beer. The women were also drinking. Returning home, she grabbed the rifle without doing any safety checks and walked downstairs into McPhee’s suite. He was standing there looking away. Dittmer decided to put rifle down and walk away quietly.
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