An Osoyoos man already in jail for other crimes was found guilty at trial of shooting a man on Canada Day in 2022. 

Steven Marlo Gallagher appeared in Penticton Supreme Court on Dec. 13 where Madam Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick made her ruling. 

Multiple witnesses, RCMP officers and members of the group who were at the beach the day of the shooting in 2022 alongside the victim, including Gallagher's ex-wife, were called to testify during the trial. 

The 32-year-old was found guilty of one count of aggravated assault, one count of pointing a firearm and one count of firing a firearm. Any jail sentence imposed will extend his stay behind bars, where the prolific violent offender is serving out sentences for arson and other unrelated firearms crimes from 2021. 

The focus of the trial hinged on identifying Gallagher as the man responsible for the shooting.

At the beginning of the trial, the Crown prosecution laid out how the victim had gone to White Sands beach with a group of friends, 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. 

Gallagher is scheduled to appear in January to set a date for his sentencing. 

He is currently set to be in prison until 2028 for previous crimes, 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.