David Frank Burling walked out of a Manitoba jail in March with a police bullet lodged in his lower back and a driving ban after a long history of stealing cars and evading police.
A Manitoba judge warned Burling in January to get his act together or suffer the consequences after sentencing him to two and a half years in prison. With time served, Burling was given 72 days of additional jail time.
“It’s my hope, Mr. Burling, that this is the very last time that you put yourself and others at risk by behaving in this manner, by not only stealing motor vehicles but by fleeing from police and driving dangerous. You do not have the right to do that,” said provincial court Judge Jean McBride on Jan. 15.
”If this has not been a wake-up call for you, I don’t know what is or what will be and if it happens again there’s no question you will be looking at a much longer jail sentence.”
David Burling, 29, has a long history of stealing cars and evading police. (Saskatchewan RCMP)
On Wednesday, the 29-year-old was the subject of an intense manhunt in two provinces after a wild police chase through rural Manitoba and into Saskatchewan.
Burling was later arrested.
The chaos resulted in Winnipeg police fatally shooting a man in a stolen vehicle in Otterburne after it rammed into their cruiser early Wednesday.
After the shots were fired, Burling allegedly drove off and ditched the truck and the dying passenger at a gas station in Niverville. He’s then accused of stealing an SUV and driving to Saskatchewan, where he was put in handcuffs by Mounties nearly 12 hours later.
Burling’s mother, Jeannette Gauthier Willis, said she was “very disappointed,” after learning of her son’s arrest.
“The thing that stuck out to me the most is that he left his friend there to die,” she told the Free Press, noting she does not know the identity of the deceased. “I’ve given up on (my son) a long time ago. Now, it’s getting more serious.”
Burling is no stranger to law enforcement chases or even police shootings, the Free Press has confirmed.
He has a lengthy criminal record dominated by auto-theft related offences, including five convictions for flight from police.
Early on June 15, 2022, Burling was shot by an RCMP officer just east of Portage la Prairie as he drove a pick-up truck hauling a pair of stolen ATVs on a trailer on the Trans-Canada Highway.
Burling was accused by RCMP of ramming into a constable’s vehicle and swerving toward the Mountie after he got out of his cruiser, but his lawyer disputed those claims in Portage la Prairie provincial court.
Lawyer Matthew Raffey said Burling asserted it was the Mountie who had rammed into him as he slowly drove the truck and its stolen payload down the highway.
The two vehicles became intertwined and the Mountie got out of his cruiser. The officer, who was alone, said he fired at Burling’s truck as he swerved toward him.
Burling continued driving at a slow speed, with a bullet wound, toward Portage la Prairie, as he was in fear after being shot and wanted to be arrested by multiple officers, Raffey said.
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS
RCMP forensics officers investigate at the scene of a shooting in Niverville, Wednesday.
He eventually came to a stop on the small city’s main strip and was taken to hospital. The bullet remains lodged in his back, said Raffey.
The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba continues to probe the shooting, but Burling pleaded guilty at the hearing to two counts of motor vehicle theft, flight from police and dangerous driving, for the 2022 incidents.
Charges of attempted murder and assaulting a police officer with a weapon, among others, were stayed.
Raffey said Burling had an impoverished childhood with an at-times neglectful and abusive mother and stepfather that included stints in child welfare care. He had lost his job in March 2022.
He and his common-law wife and her two kids were living in a borrowed trailer, and he was asked by an associate to steal ATVs from two Enns Brothers dealerships to make some money, said the lawyer.
McBride’s two-and-a-half year sentence included a five-year driving ban, which Crown prosecutor Rustyn Ullrich and Raffey had jointly recommended.
Burling had already been banned for life from being issued a Manitoba Public Insurance driver’s licence.
McBride continued his dressing down over his continued motor vehicle theft and criminal behaviour.
“This is not the first time you’ve acted this way,” the judge said. “It’s not the first that you’ve stolen a motor vehicle, it’s not the first time you’ve fled from police and it’s not the first time you’ve driven dangerously.”
McBride noted if he had been convicted of the heavier charges, he would have faced a much steeper sentence.
That wasn’t his first talking to from a Manitoba judge, either.
In May 2020, Burling pleaded guilty to nearly a dozen vehicle-theft related charges involving six incidents spanning nearly two years.
“This has got to stop,” provincial court Judge Heather Pullan said at the time. “It’s been a one-man crime wave for two years.”
Pullan sentenced Burling to the equivalent of 27 months in custody and two years supervised probation. She also prohibited him from driving for eight years.
At his 2020 sentencing, his then-lawyer suggested an “addiction to driving” might be at the root of his crimes. Pullan urged him to get counselling.
In June 2017, Burling was sentenced to six months after he was arrested at gunpoint following a chase in a stolen jeep near Winkler. At the time, court heard Burling said it was his goal “to keep police as busy as long as he was able to.”
Burling’s mom said she suspected her son may have been involved in the Wednesday incident when she saw news reports. Gauthier Willis said she hasn’t had much contact with her son for years, but he contacted her over the weekend to invite her to visit him in Saskatchewan.
She said she declined, because she does not want to be associated with him due to his behaviour and convictions.
The mother said Burling has an intellectual disability and doesn’t understand right from wrong. She said he would take her vehicle without her knowledge when he was as young as 12.
Gauthier Willis said family members sought diagnoses and help for him while he grew up.
“His brain doesn’t think. He acts before thinking about it, and then it’s too late to go back,” she said.
“Hopefully, maybe this time he’ll learn.”
In June 2022, Burling was shot by an RCMP officer during an incident on the Trans-Canada Highway east of Portage la Prairie. In court earlier this year, he denied ramming the officer’s vehicle and swerving at him.
erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca
chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca
Chris Kitching
Reporter
As a general assignment reporter, Chris covers a little bit of everything for the Free Press.
Erik Pindera
Reporter
Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice.
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