An Osoyoos man already serving time for arson potentially won't get out of prison until 2036 over a shooting that injured a man on Canada Day in 2022. 

Steven Marlo Gallagher appeared via video in Penticton Supreme Court on Friday, March 7 to hear the decision from Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick on what an appropriate sentence would be after he was found guilty in 2024 of aggravated assault, pointing a firearm, and unlawful discharge of a firearm. 

The victim had gone to White Sands beach in Osoyoos with a group of friends to celebrate the holiday, while at the same time, Gallagher and his own group had set up on the hill above the beach. 

After Gallagher began to kick sand down the beach towards the other group, he got into an argument with some of them, expressing his interest in fighting before pulling out a gun and shooting wildly. 

Several of the shots went into the air, but at least two found the victim's body, with a cut above his eye and a shot that went clean through his hip. 

In her reasons, Fitzpatrick noted that Gallagher had been under a 10-year firearm prohibition from a previous conviction, and was out on probation for the arson and unrelated firearms charges when he went to the beach with a gun. 

"Mr. Gallagher's July 2022 offences take his reckless and dangerous use of firearms to another level," said Fitzpatrick. "It is beyond dispute that Mr. Gallagher's decisions to bring a loaded firearm to a crowded beach then purposely bring that firearm to a fight that he started and then intentionally discharge that loaded handgun in the above circumstances was incredibly reckless and put everyone on that beach in serious danger."

The justice went further and stated it was only blind luck that the victim had suffered non-life-threatening injuries and that no one else was wounded or killed was also blind luck. 

In mitigating factors, the support of Gallagher's family and the Osoyoos Indian Band and efforts made to rehabilitate since being taken into custody in 2022 were recognized. 

"Mr. Gallagher has had that support throughout his whole life, and yet he has squandered it in favour of his criminal behaviour," said Fitzpatrick. "Whether that support will now prove to make a difference in his life remains to be seen."

What was considered more mitigating was Gallagher's history of substance abuse and the loss of loved ones that exacerbated his substance abuse around the time of the incidents that landed him before the courts. 

The justice levelled an eight-year sentence for the charge of discharging the firearm, the lengthiest of the three charges, and after taking into account the totality of his other sentences he is currently serving, reduced it by a single year. 

As a result, Gallagher has 11 years remaining in jail. He will be eligible to apply for parole in the future. 

In addition to the jail sentence, Gallagher will be under a no-contact order and a DNA order to provide samples for the national database.

He is under a lifetime firearm prohibition from the 2021 offences,  including the "vengeance-based arson" of an Oliver pharmacy in 2021, which happened just six weeks after being caught in possession of multiple firearms while under a 10-year ban following reports of shots being fired on Penticton Indian Band Land, that he was already in jail for.