By Sheldon Spackman

November 2024 Incident

Man charged in Ponoka County shooting incident, ordered to stand trial

Jun 2, 2025 | 12:27 PM

A Ponoka County resident charged in an alleged shooting incident last year has been ordered to stand trial.

Denton David Bonnett, 40, was ordered to stand trial following a preliminary hearing in Ponoka Court of Justice on May 30, 2025. A trial date, however, has yet to be set.

Ponoka RCMP originally charged two people following the incident on Nov. 18, 2024.

It was just after 2 p.m. that day when RCMP say they received a report about a suspicious person in a rural field being chased by local residents. This was in the area of Range Road 251 and Township Road 433.

RCMP located and arrested a male who’d been detained by a resident after allegedly throwing a knife at them, police said.

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Police then received a report of a shooting in the same area.

Mounties say people in a truck had been approached by two people in another truck while on Montana First Nation.

One occupant of the second truck, who was a resident out looking for a suspect, allegedly pointed a gun and fired a bullet at their vehicle. There were no injuries.

As a result of the investigation, RCMP charged the original suspect, Montana First Nation resident, Jeral Maurice Thomas Rabbit, 25, with:

• Assault with a weapon;
• Possession of a weapon contrary to order (x2);
• Fail to comply with release condition (x3).

Rabbit was taken before a Justice of the Peace and remanded into custody but later had his charges withdrawn on Jan. 24, 2025.

As a result of the second incident, RCMP charged Ponoka County resident, Denton David Bonnett, 40, with:

• Careless use of a firearm;
• Possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose;
• Reckless discharge of a firearm.

Bonnett was taken before a Justice of the Peace and released from custody on bail with conditions.

In a statement, Alberta RCMP spokesperson, Cpl. Troy Savinkoff, said residents should be wary about taking matters into their own hands.

“This is an example of a local resident who armed themselves and attempted to chase after someone engaged in a criminal act. In doing so, the resident came across a completely innocent third party and erroneously believed they were related to the original suspect,” Savinkoff said at the time of the arrests.

“The resident then [allegedly] committed a serious criminal act by firing a gun in the direction of the innocent third-party. We remind the public to keep yourselves and family safe and allow the police to respond to crimes in progress.”

Savinkoff says RCMP are the ones, not residents, who have the training and equipment to properly respond to these events.

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