W. R. Myers High School shooting

The W. R. Myers High School shooting was a school shooting that occurred on April 28, 1999, at W. R. Myers High School in Taber, Alberta, Canada. The gunman, 14-year-old Todd Cameron Smith, walked into his school and began firing at three students in a hallway, killing one student and wounding another student. This shooting took place only eight days after the Columbine High School Massacre in Littleton, Colorado, and is widely believed to have been a copycat crime. It was the first fatal high-school shooting in Canada in more than two decades.

The incident began when Smith entered the school campus armed with a registered sawed-off .22-calibre rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. As lunch concluded, he fired at three students in a hallway adjacent to the cafeteria. He fatally shot 17-year-old Jason Lang at point-blank range, and then shot at two other students, seriously wounding one, and missing the other. Gym coach Cheyno Finnie managed to wrestle Smith to the floor. He was arrested without further incident by a Taber constable, who also served as the school's resource officer. He was charged with one count of first-degree murder, and two counts of attempted murder.

Smith's identity and background was originally protected under Canada's Young Offenders Act at the time of his arrest. He had dropped out of W.R. Myers High School earlier in the school year. According to court documents, he had suffered severe bullying at school, including having been doused with lighter fluid and threatened to be set alight when he was in the first grade. He was remembered as being intelligent but socially awkward, and had become "reclusive and extremely fearful" by early adolescence. His mother said he had been showing signs of depression throughout his childhood. Smith's family stated that he "snapped" after watching coverage of the Columbine massacre, which had occurred eight days prior.

Crown prosecutors attempted to have then 15-year-old Smith tried as an adult with the potential for a life sentence with the possibility of parole in five years. The Crown also argued that an adult prison would offer greater educational programs than a youth facility could provide. The court denied the motion and he was tried as a juvenile.