Redcliff man pleads guilty to charges stemming from 2023 standoff, including firing a gun multiple times

By Medicine Hat News on November 22, 2024.

@MedicineHatNews

A Redcliff man charged with firing a gun while RCMP officers attempted to arrest him last year has pleaded guilty to a raft of charges and will be sentenced next month.

Jonathon Andrew Kearney, 33, was arrested June 17, 2023 following a seven-hour standoff, during which he fired at least six shots with a 9-millimetre rifle through the windows and body of a holiday trailer where he hid.

Defence attorney Katherine Beyak told Court of Justice in Medicine Hat that a preliminary inquiry in the case was scheduled for the next day, but a resolution agreement had been reached.

She requested sentencing be adjourned to Dec. 9, so her client could make arrangements ahead of a “significant penitentiary sentence.”

Court heard in an agreed statement of facts that the events began one day earlier when Kearney approached the owner of the home where he was living in a holiday trailer.

He was charged with punching the man and stabbing him with an “epi-pen” anti-allergy device, and ordered not to return to the property.

The next day, RCMP received a 911 call that Kearney had returned, then pulled a “sawed-off” shotgun when the lone officer arrived and asked him to leave.

The Mountie dispersed pepper spray in the face of the man, and once again ordered him out of the trailer. While leaving, Kearney grabbed another firearm. More pepper spray was deployed, and the officer pulled his service firearm and retreated from the trailer to call for backup.

The Medicine Hat Police Tactical Team and other RCMP officers attended the address to contain the trailer. Officers heard at least six shots that were later found to have passed through the window, sides and floor of the trailer, before Kearney surrendered at 1:30 a.m.

Through his attorney, Kearney pled guilty to assault and assault with a weapon for the incident on June 16.

He also pled guilty to recklessly discharging a firearm, resisting arrest, pointing a firearm, three counts of possessing a prohibited firearm, plus one for doing so while prohibited by court order, and failing to comply with bail conditions.

As part of the plea agreement, the Crown withdrew a charge of discharging a firearm with intent, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years, along with several weapons charges.

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