Seven years for a moment; a lifetime for the man who survived it.

A frozen pond in February, a snowmobile crossing the ice, a man watching from a window. These are the elements of a story that should end with nothing more than cold hands and a safe return home. Instead, it ended with a shotgun blast, a brain injury, and a courtroom in Corner Brook where a judge was asked to weigh what one moment of violence costs a family, a community, and a life not yet lived.

Harold Wayne Hynes, 68, was sentenced Monday to seven years in prison for shooting Chad Hickey in the head on February 21, 2025 . Hynes had initially pleaded not guilty to attempted murder, careless use of a firearm, and aggravated assault. In July, he changed his plea to guilty on the latter two charges, and the attempted murder charge was discharged .

The facts, as presented in court, are stark. Hickey and a friend were crossing Gravel's Pond, a small saltwater pond near Hynes's home in Port au Port West, on a snowmobile. Hynes fired his shotgun from a window, striking Hickey in the head. Hickey was not wearing a helmet. He suffered a brain injury and underwent surgery to remove bullet fragments. He spent thirty-three days in the hospital and six weeks in rehabilitation, relearning how to dress himself and tie his shoes . He permanently lost the use of parts of his left side.

Justice Trina Simms, sentencing from Corner Brook, noted that firing a shotgun in the manner Hynes did endangered not only Hickey but the community . The sentence was the maximum the Crown had sought. Alex Hickey, Chad's wife, told the court she was happy with that outcome, though no sentence could be "justice enough for what Chad and our family have gone through" .

What the sentence cannot restore is measured in smaller, more intimate losses. Chad Hickey told the court during an August hearing that his injuries robbed him of the chance to be a first-time father in the way he had imagined. He could not pick up his own child, buckle him into a car seat, or feed him a bottle. Alex was eight months pregnant when the shooting happened . Their son is now eighteen months old, and Chad has returned to work captaining a fishing boat, though he struggles with balance and has only one functioning hand.

Hynes, who appeared by teleconference from the Bishop's Falls Correctional Centre, offered an apology during the sentencing hearing. Alex Hickey did not accept it. "He knows what he did when he pulled the trigger," she said. "There are no words that could take that back" . Hynes faces a lifetime prohibition on using a firearm and is barred from contacting Hickey or his family.

The pond is still there, and the ice will return this winter as it always does. What has changed is everything that happens around it—a family learning a new normal, a community that witnessed what a single decision can do, and a man in a correctional facility who will have seven years to consider the weight of a trigger pulled from a window.

The visual content in this article was created with AI generation tools.

Sources: CBC News