BATTLEFORD — A young offender who still poses a significant risk to the public has refused treatment and rehabilitation programs in prison and continues to associate with the Terror Squad street gang.
Now 24 years old (he was 17 at the time of the killing), he was sentenced as an adult in the 2019 death of Ryan Gatzke.
“You continue to associate with your gang with no interest in changing that,” read the July 7 parole documents. “You are not engaged with your case management team. You are heading to your statutory release date without addressing your rehabilitation, with the same risk factors that led you to your index offence. The risk you pose to the community has not been mitigated in any sense and you remain assessed with a low reintegration potential.
"You remain untreated in relation to your violent behaviour and associated risk factors," said the parole board.
Statutory release is the legally mandated release of an offender after they have served two-thirds of their sentence — a requirement set by Parliament. The Parole Board of Canada can't block his release outright but it has authority to impose a residency condition and numerous strict conditions on his statutory release, in an effort to manage the risk he still presents.
Some of the conditions imposed by the board include staying at a half-way house or psychiatric facility, a curfew, no contact with gang members, and not to consume alcohol or non-prescription drugs.
The accused, who can’t be identified due to the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was five months short of his eighteenth birthday at the time of Gatzke’s murder on Oct. 18, 2019.
He was arrested in May 2020 and denied bail following a two-hour bail hearing in April 2021, and remained in custody until his trial and sentencing.
He was sentenced to 9.5-years in prison. With 2,180 days remand credit, the young offender had 1,270 days left to serve in prison — or 3.5 years — as of May 2024.
Terror Squad tipped off that Gatzke won money
A casino employee in North Battleford tipped off Terror Squad street gang members that Ryan Gatzke had won money, court heard. After a night out with his pregnant common-law wife Tashina Peters, Gatzke, 27, was fatally shot during a home invasion robbery in Battleford on Oct. 18, 2019.
Tanisha previously described waking to a rattling door, seeing a gun in Ryan’s face, and watching him fight off intruders before being shot.
“He protected both of us,” she said.
During his sentencing hearing in 2024, Crown Prosecutor Jennifer Schmidt told the court the young offender was the shooter, and “was a principal in the act of robbing Gatzke and a principal in shooting and killing him.” July parole documents say he committed the killing with other members his gang while wearing gang flags during the crime.
Parole documents reveal that while in prison, he was involved in more than 35 incidents, including fights, contraband, making home brew, tattooing, cell visiting, covering of smoke detectors, covering of windows, banging on cell doors, tattooing, overdosing, being caught with kite (note on fishing line), and being hostile towards staff.
“Many of the incidents occurred with multiple individuals who were typically members of your gang,” read parole documents.
Psychiatric assessments showed he is low functioning intellectually, with daredevil tendencies, and likely has ADHD, FAS, and Antisocial Personality Disorder — though he is street smart, Schmidt previously told the court.
He quit school at 13, began using cocaine and alcohol at 12, and puts Terror Squad above all else. When he was remanded on the murder charge, he showed his gang tattoo to jail staff and asked to be put into the Terror Squad wing, court heard.
At the time of Gatzke’s shooting death in October 2019, he was under a firearms prohibition and unlawfully at large on charges from two months earlier — including two separate shootings targeting rival gang Westside Outlawz in August 2019, for which he was arrested and released.
During his sentencing hearing in 2024, defence counsel Katherine Pocha said her client was from Flying Dust First Nation near Meadow Lake. He once enjoyed hunting with his grandfather, but both sets of grandparents attended Residential School — one notorious for abuse. His mother grew up with alcoholic parents, domestic violence was prevalent in his home, and his father left when he was about five or six.
After moving to North Battleford in 2015, he became rebellious, was placed in a group home (Eagle’s Nest), felt abandoned, and attempted suicide there. His criminal involvement began at Eagle’s Nest, and he has been in and out of institutions since age 13.
The Gladue Report reveals his mother drank during pregnancy, linking FAS to his Antisocial Personality Disorder.
According to parole documents, he expects to receive a payment from his First Nation upon release.
Three others sentenced
In June 2023, Jacob Ballantyne was sentenced to eight years in prison after he pleaded guilty to manslaughter. He was initially charged with second-degree murder.
In February 2023, Isaac Melko was sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter. He was initially charged with second-degree murder.
In March 2022, Charles McLean pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to four years in prison.
RCMP had found Gatzke in his home in the 100 block of 26 Street West in Battleford on Oct. 18, 2019. He was badly injured and taken to the North Battleford hospital by EMS where he was later declared dead.
