The owner of a Maple Ridge turkey farm thought she was going to die the night of Oct. 5, 2022 after being shot when the front door of her house was kicked in. 

"I still hear it vividly," said Shumei Brooks in her victim impact statement that she read aloud to a courtroom filled mostly with friends and family of Dustin Born, the Abbotsford man behind the gun, at his sentencing hearing in Port Coquitlam on Wednesday, Sept. 18.

"The sounds of the glass and the door panel shattered and see the shot gun aimed at me coldly and the menacing expression on the face of the shooter," she said. 

Shumei and her husband Dudley Brooks sat with a worker from Victim Services during the court proceedings presided over by Judge Jeffrey Campbell, where they heard, for the first time how, earlier that night, Born sat at Mission Springs Brewing Company and sent texts to his wife.

He told her how much he loved her, his boys, and his parents, and that if he died that night, he gave his wife instructions on who could attend his funeral, along with how to access money in an account. 

He told his wife that Shumei needed to pay for what she had done, that she had destroyed his life, and that there was going to be a resolution one way or the other. 

"I am tired and can't continue to fight. It ends tonight," he wrote.

"My time has come to meet my maker," he said, telling his wife that if she didn't hear from him in the next two hours, something went wrong.

Born was hired by the Brooks family in July 2020 to build a turkey barn for their business, Skyacres Turkey Ranches Ltd. However, court documents revealed that although construction began soon after, the relationship between Born and the Brooks鈥� family soured and the contract was terminated in December 2020. 

A notice of civil claim was filed that year, seeking damages from Born, accusing him of refusing to fulfill the contract, and also for trespassing, assault and battery, the discharge of a builders鈥� lien that Born and his company had placed on their property, and a fine. 

On Jan. 5, the following year, Born and his company filed their own notice of civil claim against the turkey farm and all three of the Brooks, for debt or contractual damages in addition to damages for the value of their services, even though the work remained uncompleted 鈥� as well as 鈥減unitive and aggravated damages.鈥� 

But, Born's financial and personal woes came to a head on Oct. 5 when Born ended up at the Brooks house, busting through their front door, firing at least two shots, wounding Shumei, before shooting their family dog Wally, who was barking at him. 

The court heard how Brooks' daughter, Amanda, who was 24-years-old at the time, witnessed the shooting from the landing upstairs and ran when she saw the gun. She hid on the roof of the house, where she could still hear her mother crying and screaming, until a police helicopter located her. 

Their son Stephen was outside on the property and ran to a neighbour's house to call 911. Dudley, who was in the kitchen, also managed to call for help.

In her statement to the court, Shumei said she felt something pass through her on her left side. 

"I touched my body and felt the blood on my hand so warm, wet, and sticky. I felt my left side at my stomach was torn open and something messy and spongy in my hand. I see Walle was shot beside me, but I could not help him," she described. 

She also recalled hearing her husband on the phone with police saying their daughter was dead. And as Shumei lay on the floor, Walle stood beside her, she said, in a guarding position. 

"I held him feeling his blood running down along my arm."

When police told her they found her daughter, she cried, said Shumei.

Shumei was rushed to Royal Columbian Hospital where she had emergency surgery on her abdomen. Walle lived for one more hour but due to blood loss had to be euthanized. 

After the shooting the court heard how Born returned to his home in Abbotsford, where he called 911 with his wife, to tell them what he did. He advised police he was in the garage with his firearm locked in a gun safe, and would come out with his hands up. His wife told police that he didn't want his four teenage boys to see him being arrested. 

The Abbotsford Police Department took him into custody before transferring him to the Ridge Meadows RCMP.

Police were given the combination for the lock and found the firearm used in the shooting in the safe during a search of the Born residence, in addition to a black backpack with red shotgun shells and a magazine, and Born's possession and acquisition license. A single shell was still in the gun.

Crown is asking for Born to be sentenced to six years in jail, telling the judge the text messages showed that Born's actions that night were planned and deliberate and left lasting physical and psychological scars on the Brooks family.

Born's defence team, is asking for two years, less a day, and three years of probation citing a history of poor mental health, a history of alcohol abuse. Defence lawyer Jeffrey Ray told the judge how Born is a contributing member of society, a family man who loves his four children, who has taken action to reform his life.

He will find out his fate on Thursday, Oct. 3. 

When Shumei was discharged from hospital and finally returned home, she said, there was so much blood on the floor that it covered the linoleum and soaked the carpet, as well as the sofa. 

"I pick up a broom and started to sweep up all the shotgun pellets scattered all over the floor, then I grab and bucket and a mop to clean up my own blood," she said, her children later joining her. 

Since the shooting, Shumei describes having suicidal thoughts, and finds it hard to sleep. She has also become afraid to exercise, in case her healed wound might burst open again.

"I knew it is not true, but the fear stays in my mind all the same," she said. 

And she had to put on pause her studies for an accounting degree that she was working towards. 

In addition to a scar across her abdomen, she still feels the shotgun pellets still lodged within her body 鈥� a constant reminder of the violence that took place that evening.

Her son Stephen had to put a pause on his own studies to take care of the farm and daughter Amanda still remembers the smell of bleach and blood, she finds herself quick to anger, has lost interest in hobbies, and is scared Born will come back to the property because he knows where they live.

They buried Walle in their garden, and Shumei said, she cries every time she thinks about him.

Born apologized to Shumei and Dudley in the courtroom, when given an opportunity to speak by the judge, saying that he hopes and prays they will be able to live in peace and not in fear. He also told them he would not return to their farm again.

However, outside the courthouse, Shumei and Dudley said they don't trust Born is remorseful for what he did that night. 

Shumei thinks that his mental health claims are a way for him to avoid a hefty sentence. 

鈥淭here was a legal avenue already set up to solve the problem,鈥� said Dudley about their civil case over the construction of the turkey barn. 鈥淏ut he took it into his own hands and figured it wasn鈥檛 good enough, he had to shoot somebody.鈥�
鈥淚 think there is no remorse, or very little," he said.