Content warning: This story contains graphic details about a shooting death.
On most days since Jeff Pasechnik felt his 18-year-old daughter's heartbeat fade away beneath his hand at Vancouver General Hospital almost four years ago, he says he wishes he wasn't here anymore either.
His youngest girl, Anichka (Ani) Loeffler, had been rushed to the hospital on Nov. 29, 2020 after being shot in the head by her boyfriend, Trevor Dominic Brown, at his Burnaby home.
"There are no words," Pasechnik said of the moment a nurse took Ani off life support, "only the heart-wrenching pain of a parent letting their child go."
Pasechnik was one of four members of the slain teen's family to read out victim impact statements at Brown's sentencing in Vancouver provincial court Monday.
The 21-year-old was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter, possessing a rifle without a licence, pointing the rifle at Ani and using the rifle in a careless manner.
He also pleaded guilty to two unrelated assault charges stemming from an incident in February 2021.
'She brought me so much joy'
Ani, who had graduated from Alpha Secondary School just a few months before the killing, loved animals, drawing and spending time with family and friends, according to her mother, Tanja Loeffler.
The baby of the family, Ani had been working toward Red Seal certification in hair dressing and hoped to work in the film industry.
"She brought me so much joy in life," Tanja said. "I was very proud of her."
Ani's oldest sister, Nadine Loeffler, told the court the last time she saw Ani alive was the night before the shooting, when she, her mother, two sisters and best friend had had an impromptu dumpling making party.
"Ani was playing all of the songs she liked to dance to, as usual," Nadine said. "I remember all of us laughing and dancing in the kitchen that night."
Since the shooting, however, the images that now flash unbidden into Nadine's mind are those of her baby sister on a gurney at VGH, with a bullet hole in her right temple, blood in her hair and the family pleading with emergency room doctors to save her when it was already too late.
"I went from talking about her dreams with her the night before to screaming at doctors to save her and desperately wiping the blood out of her hair the next day," Nadine told the court. "Your honour, the way we saw her in the hospital is not something that anyone should ever have to see in their life."
Karina Loeffler, Ani's middle sister, told the court Brown's "senseless" act has robbed her not only of her sister, but of her family as well.
"Our family is broken," she said. "I don't really feel like I have a family since Ani died. We're missing a massive piece of our family and a massive piece of our hearts and lives."
'I was just joking around with her'
Ani had stayed overnight at Brown's Oxford Street house on the night before the shooting, according to a statement of agreed facts read out in court.
Just after 12:30 p.m. the next day, Nov. 29, 2020, Brown's grandmother Laurie McConville called 911 to report Ani had been shot in the head by accident.
Initially, Brown told police Ani had shot herself while "playing around" with the gun, but his mother, Vanessa McConville, told police Brown had told her he had accidentally shot Ani believing the safety was on.
Brown's mother and grandmother both told police they had heard no fighting, arguing or loud noises before the gunshot.
Brown, who was not licensed to have a gun, said he had been keeping the weapon for a friend for about six months but refused to name the owner.
He initially told police he and Ani had smoked marijuana and were "fooling around" on the bed with the gun at their feet.
“He then admitted that he 'only pointed the gun at her head for a split second. That's how quick it could all happen. I was just joking around with her,'" stated the agreed facts.
Brown said he had not been trying to scare Ani or get her to do anything, according to the facts.
'He was responsible'
Crown prosecutor Phillip Sebelin said Brown should go to prison for four years for the killing because his degree of responsibility was high.
Sebelin noted Brown had smoked marijuana before playing around with rifle, had no reason to possess the firearm, had no licence, had not checked whether it was loaded or the safety was on, had pointed it at Ani's head and had initially tried to blame her for the shooting.
"Although he didn't intend to harm her, he was responsible for the safe handling of the firearm and knew its capacity to cause death if the proper safety was not followed," Sebelin said.
Defence lawyer Dale Melville, however, called for a two-year sentence of house arrest with electronic monitoring followed by three years of probation.
He said Brown's moral blameworthiness was reduced because he has fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health problems related to a traumatic childhood.
Melville argued Brown's Indigenous ancestry on his father's side and the impacts of colonialism also needed to be factored into the sentence.
Melville added the sentence he was proposing would keep Brown under court supervision longer than the sentence put forward by the Crown.
'A fit sentence'
But B.C. provincial court Judge Gregory Rideout said a conditional sentence, during which Brown's grandmother would essentially have to act as his "jailer" was "neither practical nor appropriate."
He sentenced Brown to four years in prison for the manslaughter and six months for the possession of the rifle without a licence.
"Firearms are not toys. There is no room for error when a trigger is pulled," Rideout said.
Rideout concluded the shooting was not the result of a "momentary inadvertence" but a "chain of inherently dangerous actions and careless conduct" starting with the possession of the rifle without a licence and ending with Ani's death.
Rideout noted the impact on her family, calling their statement's "heart-wrenching."
He said the sentencing would be the beginning of their "healing path."
After the hearing, however, the family did not seem convinced.
"Seeing him walk away in handcuffs was a moment we've been waiting for for years," Nadine told the Burnaby NOW, "but the judge said it himself, Ani's death is a life sentence for us. We'll never fully heal from that. There will always be that loss."
Follow Cornelia Naylor on X/Twitter @CorNaylor
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