Man charged during August high-risk arrest in Riverview receives sentence

Angus was wanted on a Canada-wide warrant for violating parole. The provincial Crime Reduction Team (CRT) and Municipal GIS Unit were involved in an investigation to locate him.

Crown Prosecutor Mitch Piche said members of the RCMP Emergency Response Team (ERT) were monitoring the movements of Angus’ cellphone in the days leading up to his arrest after obtaining a tracking warrant. On Aug. 23, a member had followed Angus to Saskatoon but decided an ambush of the suspect could put the public in unnecessary harm and settled on moving to arrest Agnus in North Battleford.

Angus then returned to the city and officers began surveillance on the home and witnessed several people enter the home wearing what appeared to be body armour. Angus was then seen leaning out a window and a photo was captured and sent off to confirm his identity and obtain the necessary warrants to proceed.

Upon confirming his identity, the ERT stationed themselves around the home on the 500 block of 103rd St. in Riverview. Piche said members began calling out for Angus to surrender himself peacefully at around 4:45 p.m. that day and continued to do so for some time. He said police had made phone calls with the six people inside the home to negotiate their surrender. Angus continued to tell officers throughout the night he would exit the home but failed to do so.

A short time after officers asked him to come out or they would enter the home, Angus exited with another person and was arrested without incident.

Defence lawyer Nick Stooshinoff admitted the sentence was light but believed it to be “fair and just.” He said his client had two children who he helps support and had previously run a successful oil hauling business in Alberta where he, at one point, employed five people. He said Angus, as a younger man, worked to “become a good productive citizen,” but after the economy collapsed in the oil industry, so did his client’s livelihood and life.

Stooshinoff said he had gone to the home in Riverview as he knew it to be a party home and was looking for a place to wash his clothes before visiting one of his children in Lloydminster.

He said Angus did not engage in “typical obstruction” on the night he was arrested, rather, he described it as “passive obstruction” by simply not coming out of the home. He said the police response that night was a bit extreme, though he said officers had the grounds to believe Angus could be violent, given the charges out of Wetaskiwin. He made note how the five others in the home that night were not charged.

Judge O’Hanlon said Angus could be a “very productive individual” if he shifted his focus and that he was a “product of his upbringing,” as his father died at a young age and his mother allegedly suffers from addiction issues.

“You have to decide you don’t want to go back,” to prison, he said, while urging Angus to continue with the programs he is taking.

He added how a “great deal of resources” were used in the investigation and likely “put the neighbourhood in fear.”

tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr

by Tyler Marr

Man charged during August high-risk arrest in Riverview receives sentence

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