Cooper Nemeth – Altered Fate
Chief Danny Smyth
Improvised firing devices have recently become more and more common on the streets in Canada. Just recently the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team issued a press release regarding an officer-related shooting. The release included pictures of two firearms that had been in the possession of the deceased – a “potential improvised firearm” and a “modified imitation firearm.”
New types of firearms with new characteristics appear on our streets every day. Indeed, firearm trafficking and importation come in many shapes and sizes from straw purchases to the use of the mail, internet, and a number of other techniques to obtain either the entire firearm or its essential components – including the frame or receiver blanks.
A receiver blank is a nearly complete firearm and can be considered a firearm as it falls within the adaptability clause of a firearm as defined in the Criminal Code. These blanks have no other purpose than to be firearm receivers - they can be homemade or come as part of a kit.
In June 2020 we talked about 3D printer products like the ‘Ghost Gunner’ that can carve out the receiver of a firearm. Some pellet guns or Airsoft pistols can be converted to accept parts of an actual firearm. Examples show up almost daily of individuals attempting to get their hands on or create, a frame or receiver to make their own gun.
We have seen a marked increase in these items in the last few years (either the receiver in an unmodified state or a complete firearm built from a broken or incomplete firearm). Make no mistake, however, the possession or sale of these items could be a criminal offence when the intention is to make a complete firearm.
One of the first cases we saw of this in Winnipeg was the murder of Cooper Nemeth in 2016. Cooper was a popular high-school student at River East Collegiate. When he was reported missing by his family, people rallied from far and wide to help look for him. What wasn’t known at the time was that Cooper had become involved in the drug sub-culture.
Nicholas Bell-Wright was an acquaintance who took the opportunity to rob and kill Cooper for the Xanax he was in possession of. He plead guilty to 2nd-degree murder in 2017 and was sentenced in 2018 to life in prison without parole eligibility for 16 years. Because of the guilty plea, not many knew of the details of Cooper’s murder, including that he was shot using an Airsoft pistol that had been modified to fire real bullets.
Airsoft pistols have been a law enforcement concern at the national level for many years. They are essentially pellet guns that are manufactured to look like authentic firearms. Many violent offences have been committed by felons using these replica firearms. Nicholas Bell-Wright took that one step further by figuring out how to alter an Airsoft gun into a firearm that shot real bullets.
Firearm activity is a serious concern to me as Chief of Police. Through the Gang and Gun Suppression Strategy, our goal as a Service is to suppress and interrupt this type of activity. The murder of Cooper Nemeth was one of those cases that lead us to establish our own Firearms Investigative Analysis Section (FIAS) where we could do our own tracking and tracing of firearms in a thorough and timely manner.
Inspector Elton Hall, who oversees the Firearms Investigative Analysis Section as part of his duties as Commander of the Organized Crime Division, speaks to Sergeant John O’Donovan (retired) who led the team that investigated the homicide of Cooper Nemeth and how he was lured into a car and shot an altered firearm.
Firearms Investigative Analysis Section (FIAS)
Inspector Elton Hall, Commander
Organized Crime Division
The Firearms Investigation and Analysis Section (FIAS) became operational in January of 2019 after federal funding was provided to the Winnipeg Police Service to initiate a Firearms Investigations Unit. Instead of using the traditional investigative method of sending firearms and casings to the RCMP lab in Ontario, the Winnipeg Police Service purchased the necessary equipment to carry out these investigations on their own. This gave the Winnipeg Police real-time analytics into the tracing and sourcing of firearms.
In 2021, FIAS received eight hundred fifty-nine (859) seized crime guns, surpassing 2019 in which 790 guns were received. By the end of 2021 FIAS firearms analysts examined and test-fired four hundred sixty-one (461) firearms, two hundred twenty-six (226) seized ammunition samples, one crossbow, and seven stun guns. They also completed serial number restoration work on over sixty-one (61) firearms.
The FIAS firearms forensic technicians tested 482 firearms and completed 514 ballistics tests via the Integrated Ballistic Information System (IBIS). IBIS provides police the opportunity to access police data banks nationally in an effort to process firearms evidence and link crime scenes. Of the crime guns seized in 2021, sixty-two (62) were homemade or conversions of airsoft guns into firearms. Additionally, 253 air guns were seized. This is an increase over 2020 where 45 homemade guns and 213 air guns were seized.
One of the early cases that would lead to the Winnipeg Police obtaining their own IBIS system was the murder of Cooper Nemeth in 2016. Because of the guilty plea of Nicholas Bell-Wright in 2017, few knew that Nemeth was shot using an Airsoft pistol that had been altered to fire real bullets.
Sergeant John O’Donovan (retired), who led the team that investigated the homicide, provided some of the details on the case and the importance of understanding the history of a gun, its parts, and its source of manufacture.
The murder of Cooper Nemeth
Sergeant John O’Donovan (retired)
Winnipeg Police Homicide UnitSeventeen-year-old, Cooper Nemeth was a student at River East Collegiate in February 2016. Cooper was a popular student and a promising hockey player. However, during his senior year in high school, Cooper had become involved in the drug sub-culture in the school and in the area that he lived.
When Cooper’s father reported him missing on February 14th, 2016, it was the beginning of a complex missing person investigation that quickly developed into an intense homicide investigation and a far-reaching firearms investigation.
Cooper was last seen leaving a party around 2:00 a.m. on February 14th with Nicholas Bell-Wright. Investigators from the Missing Persons Unit conducted a number of interviews including Nicholas Bell-Wright who stated that he consumed marijuana and Xanax with Cooper and organized a drug deal for him to sell a quantity of Xanax bars to an acquaintance. After that he said, he left Cooper at another party with this acquaintance and went home.
By February 18th, there were no concrete leads as to the whereabouts of Cooper Nemeth and all the calls received after we put out a press release turned out to be rumor driven. It was looking like Cooper was the victim of foul play and the Homicide Unit took the lead on the investigation.
Investigators re-interviewed all the persons who were present at the initial party. During these interviews it was learned that Cooper and Bell-Wright were not friends and that Bell-Wright had been setting up a drug deal, for several hundred dollars worth of Xanax while at the party.
Bell-Wright was re-interviewed by the Homicide Unit and discrepancies began to arise. His story changed considerably, when he admitted to arranging to rip off Cooper for his stash of Xanax. Although he maintained he left Cooper at a house party in Valley Gardens, he could not remember the street or the house because he was high at the time. Bell-Wright’s shoes were seized, and on initial examination, a speck of blood was found under the shoe laces. A search warrant was subsequently obtained for Bell-Wright’s house.
During the search, a laptop computer was seized and cell phone. Also, during the search, the slide from an Airsoft pistol was recovered from the basement, where Bell-Wright slept. He had apparently ordered a pellet gun on line and it was delivered to the house.
An unregistered vehicle was also observed parked behind the house. It was determined that Bell-Wright used this vehicle regularly. As a result, it was towed to police headquarters for further examination under the authority of a second search warrant. While it appeared that a massive clean up took place in the vehicle, on closer examination, large amounts of blood were located under carpet and steel plates in the floor of the vehicle. Minute particles of blood spray were also located on the passenger window and the passenger door panel.
At this point a Senior Crown was contacted and authorized a charge of Second-Degree Murder for Nicholas Bell-Wright and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Shortly after the arrest warrant was issued a resident on Bayne Crescent, in East Kildonan called 911 to report suspicious circumstances. She had heard a noise in her backyard, looked out the window and saw a male pushing a recycle bin, with what appeared to be two human legs sticking out the top of the bin. She disturbed the male, who dropped the bin and ran off.
When members of General Patrol arrived on scene, they discovered the body of a young male in the bin. During a search of the area, a snow bank in a nearby back lane was found to have been disturbed. It appeared to have been dug out and there were blood stains in the snow about the size of a body. A .22 caliber semi-automatic pistol was also located on the ground near the snow bank.
At about 2:00 a.m. on February 21st, Nicholas Bell-Wright was arrested by General Patrol members while he was sitting in a stolen mini-van on a street in Amber Trails. A subsequent search of the stolen vehicle revealed Bell-Wright’s shoes, that matched prints found where the body was located and gloves used to remove the body from the snow bank.
The body was later identified as Cooper Nemeth. He had suffered two gunshot wounds to the head from a .22 caliber firearm.
FIAS members examined the .22 caliber firearm that was found in the area where Cooper’s body was discovered. The slide for the firearm was a .22 caliber ‘German Sports Gun, Model GSG 1911’. However, the rest of the gun appeared to be from an Airsoft imitation pistol.
FIAS consulted with the National Weapons Enforcement Team (NWEST) and it was determined that the gun was illegally manufactured – it had been an Airsoft pistol converted to a working firearm. NWEST continued the investigation into the origin of the conversion parts and determined that Bell-Wright had ordered the parts (including the receiver), from a distributor in British Columbia. The distributor had received the parts from an importer in Quebec. Search warrants were executed by RCMP in BC and Quebec and several of these deadly conversion kits were seized. Documentation confirming the order of the conversion kit by Bell-Wright was seized from the distributor.
A further search on the laptop seized from Bell-Wright’s home, showed a video of the simple conversion process for turning a relatively harmless Airsoft replica pistol into a deadly fully functioning .22 caliber semi-automatic firearm.
A similar investigation into illegal firearms kits, dubbed Project Renner was conducted by the OPP-led provincial weapons enforcement unit around the same time. The eight-month operation concluded in 2018 targeted an organized crime group that had been producing restricted and untraceable firearms by using unregulated parts.
The ringleaders, Bruce McKinnon and Jon Rasmussen were alleged to have manufactured and trafficked more than 120 handguns and faced charges relating to conspiracy to commit an indictable offence and trafficking in firearms. The pair pled guilty in 2020, admitting that in 2017-2018, they purchased pellet guns and gun conversion kits throughout Ontario – neither requiring firearm licenses – and created 87 fully functional, restricted handguns that they sold on the black market. In a plea agreement, Rasmussen was sentenced to 9-years in prison as he had no criminal record, and McKinnon, who had previous gun convictions, received 11-years.
As a result of such cases and with the increase in firearms offences in Winnipeg, the Service’s Organized Crime Division recognized the importance of having real-time information about firearms offences and the ability to identify and trace and track firearms and their constituent parts.
Instead of using the traditional investigative method of sending firearms and casings to the RCMP lab in Ontario, the Winnipeg Police Service purchased the necessary equipment to carry out these investigations on their own. The Firearms Investigation and Analysis Section (FIAS) became operational in January of 2019 after federal funding was provided to the Service to initiate a dedicated Firearms Investigations Unit.