Ryan Grantham: 'Riverdale' actor, 24, who shot mother dead as she played piano gets life in prison
VANCOUVER, CANADA: Ryan Grantham, 24, who played Jeffery Augustine in 'Riverdale', was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the first 14 years for killing his mother on Wednesday, September 21. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder earlier this year for shooting his mother in March 2020.
As per reports, Grantham shot his mother Barbara Waite, 64, in the back of her head while she was playing the piano in their home in British Columbia on March 31, 2020. The actor also confessed to his attempt to kill Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as he was caught with three guns, some ammunition, 12 Molotov cocktails, some camping supplies, and a sheet with directions to Trudeau's Rideau Cottage. While delivering the sentence at British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver, Justice Kathleen Ker reflected on the "tragic and heartbreaking" details of the crime, The 'Riverdale' actor used a .22 rifle to murder his mother as reported by CBC. After this, he recorded a GoPro video in which he confessed to the crime and also showed his mother's body which was played in court. Grantham said in the recording, "I shot her in the back of the head. In the moments after, she would have known it was me."
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The police statement further shows that after the incident, Grantham bought weed and beer, experimented with Molotov cocktails which would come in handy for his next mission, watched Netflix, and covered his mother's body with a sheet. The following day he hung a rosary on his mother's piano, arranged lit candles around her lifeless body, and loaded his car to try and assassinate Canada's PM. However, mid-way he changed his mind and decided to commit a mass shooting at the Lions Gate Bridge, or at Simon Fraser University, his former institute. Despite this, he turned himself in after he drove to the Vancouver Police Department and told an officer, "I killed my mother."
It has been determined by Crown prosecutor Michaela Donnelly in previous hearings that a consensus indicates that Grantham was going through an intense period of clinical depression in the months leading up to the attack where he was heavily smoking cannabis and watching violent videos on the dark web. Donnelly referred to two psychiatric reports. These reports mentioned that Grantham murdered his mother to spare her from seeing the act of violence he was going to commit. Donnelly said, "Grantham was seeking to save his mother from something he was going to do. That is something different than altruism.