Curt Dagenais calmly told the jury that the RCMP officers first shot at him following a pursuit down the dusty back roads of rural Saskatchewan and that he fired back only "as a matter of survival."

He testified he was sitting in his pickup truck, stunned that the police vehicle chasing him had just slammed into him at a clearing on a dirt trail. A shot then shattered his back window, and he saw Const. Marc Bourdages pointing a gun.

"I was scared shitless," said Dagenais, 44. "I thought I was going to die."

He said he ducked down, loaded a rifle he had with him and laid across his truck seat.

"I held (the rifle) up over above me and fired," said Dagenais. "I didn't look where I was shooting. I just shot in a general direction."

Dagenais ended up shooting both Bourdages and his partner, Const. Robin Cameron, in the head. They died in hospital nine days later.

He told court he wasn't trying to hit them and accidentally killed them in self-defence.

"You're trying to tell us you didn't intend to kill them?" asked Crown prosecutor Al Johnson on cross-examination. "Is that what you're trying to pull here?"

Dagenais muttered, "defending myself."

Closing arguments in the case are to be heard Monday. The judge plans to charge the jurors Tuesday.

They have already heard how the chase happened after a domestic dispute between Dagenais and his sister at their mother's house in Spiritwood, Sask., on July 7, 2006.

Their parents were going through a bitter divorce. Dagenais had taken the father's side and his sister was standing by the mother.

Police responded to the scene, and Dagenais was sitting outside his mother's house in his truck.

Dagenais said Cameron approached the driver's side window of his truck to tell him he was under arrest for assaulting his sister. Then, without warning, she smashed his window, he said.

He said the breaking glass scared him.

"I had a flashback of being assaulted by RCMP before," Dagenais said. "I took it as a threat."

Other witnesses have testified that Cameron broke the window after Dagenais started driving away and hit her with the side mirror of his truck.

He then sped off, and Cameron and Bourdages followed in their police truck. A third officer, Const. Michelle Knopp, also joined the chase in her SUV.

Knopp previously testified that the chase ended when Cameron and Bourdages T-boned Dagenais' truck.

But when Knopp caught up she didn't see anyone.

She said she assumed Bourdages and Cameron had jumped out to arrest Dagenais. Just then she heard a loud bang. A hole appeared in the windshield in front of her face.

Knopp said she next looked out and saw Dagenais standing there. He had a gun and fired again. She shot back and thought she saw Dagenais go down. She got out and that's when she realized that Cameron and Bourdages had been hit.

Cameron was still strapped into her seat. Bourdages was lying in the tall grass outside his door.

Dagenais is also charged with the attempted murder of Knopp. She was hit by bullet and glass fragments in the exchange of gunfire.

A firearms expert has testified that eight shots were fired from Dagenais' rifle. Knopp, Cameron and Bourdages fired five shots in total.

The expert found eight bullet holes in the two RCMP vehicles and four bullet holes in Dagenais' truck.

The Canadian Press, 2009