LLOYDMINSTER – A 31-year-old man charged in the fatal shootings of a father and his two sons last September had an appearance scheduled in Lloydminster Provincial Court Monday, with his case now set for an election on July 21.
Nakota Rayne Pooyak, from Sweetgrass First Nation, faces three counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Brent Peters, 66, and his two sons Matthew, 32, and Brennan, 34. The victims were found dead inside their Lloydminster, Sask., home on Sept. 11, 2024, after RCMP responded to a well-being check around 5:51 p.m. in the area of 50 Street and 47 Avenue.
Pooyak was arrested at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre, where he had been in custody on unrelated charges.
Pooyak has troubled past
This isn’t Pooyak’s first encounter with law enforcement. In February, 2023, a six-hour standoff with police shut down Highway 16 near Waseca, between Lloydminster and North Battleford, while authorities pursued him on a Canada-wide warrant for parole violations.
Court and parole documents reveal a troubled past, with a judge once warning Pooyak, “You can either grow up and become an adult or you can keep doing this kind of thing and then you’re going to run the risk at having the Crown look to applying for dangerous offender status for you at some point in time in your future.”
Pooyak’s lengthy criminal record includes weapon offences, assaults, robberies, forcible confinement, intimidation, threats, drug possession, fraud, and fleeing police. Parole documents cite family fragmentation, negative associations, and cultural disconnection as contributing factors to his cycle of crime.
Raised by a young mother and extended family, Pooyak began using drugs and alcohol as a teen and later joined a street gang. Though he claimed to have left the gang while in provincial custody, authorities said his continued high risk due to his associations attitude, and substance abuse.
Pooyak remains in custody.
