The Case Against Brian Spencer

The man who represents Spencer, public defender Barry Weinstein, will not discuss the case with reporters. "This is a person's life," he said. "I take this seriously. I'm not going to open it up to the kind of mistakes and misrepresentations that occur when you start trying your case in the press."

Spencer was born in Fort St. James, which is a long way north of anywhere you are, in September 1949. He was a twin, although he and his brother, Byron, do not look much alike. The father's name was Roy, the mother's is Irene. She had been a schoolteacher, and then did office work for the Hudson's Bay Co. Roy had a gravel pit, and drove the boys to hockey practice. Twenty miles, round-trip, even when he was sick.

The family lived outside town and owned a generator that was their only source of electricity. When Roy's emphysema gave him trouble breathing, they would start it to run the oxygen machine.

The boys fished in the summer and played hockey all winter. They went to the only school in town—it was three or four rooms in the beginning—through grade 10. There was no high school in Fort St. James, so they began grade 11 in Vander-hoof—a 40-mile bus ride.

Like a lot of NHL players from small towns, Spencer did not finish high school. He quit, devoting himself to the sport, and in December 1970, he was called up to the Toronto Maple Leafs from Tulsa.

On Saturday, Dec. 12, the Leafs were at home against Chicago. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation televised that game to eastern Canada. In the west, however, the CBC was carrying the Vancouver Canucks versus the Oakland Seals.

Angry that his son's game was not being broadcast by CKPG Television in Prince George, Roy Spencer got into his car and drove the 110 miles to the station, where he pulled a 9-mm pistol and, holding the news director and the program director and six other employees against a wall, ordered them to take the station off the air.

The station shut down, and Roy Spencer told the program manager, "If the station comes back on the air again, I will hold you responsible. I am very upset about the CBC coverage."

Then he backed out of the studio and ran for the door. He was crossing the sidewalk outside the station when the police told him to drop his gun. He turned, 15 feet away, and shot one of the policemen in the foot, another in the holster.

The police returned fire, hitting Roy Spencer in the shoulder, the armpit and the mouth, and he was dead on arrival at Prince George Regional Hospital.