Local man, now with Alzheimer’s diagnosis, to receive competency review to see if he’s fit for trial on several firearms-related charges

By MEDICINE HAT NEWS on February 11, 2023.

https://www.medicinehatnews.com@MedicineHatNews

A Medicine Hat man facing two dozen charges after police say he fired a gun during a standoff last year will undergo analysis to see if he is fit to stand trial.

The lawyer for Barry D. Reed, 69, says his client suffers from rapidly advancing Alzheimer’s Disease and the condition likely predates the alleged offices, though it was undiagnosed at the time.

Reed was arrested in January 2022 after police were called to a home in Crescent Heights and subdued the man using non-lethal weapons following a domestic dispute.

He initially refused to seek legal counsel, but eventually defence attorneys secured his release on bail to be housed in a long-term care facility in Saskatchewan after he suffered serious injury at Medicine Hat Remand Centre.

On Friday, defence lawyer Justin Deen asked Court of King’s Bench Justice Dallas Millar to renew a request for Reed to undergo a competency review as well as an evaluation to determine if he could be held criminally responsible for the incident.

“He is limited from leaving the facility for his own safety, and has degenerated faster than expected,” Deen told the court. “(The review process) is complicated by him being out of province.”

Justice Miller ordered that the 30-day review move ahead on Deen’s suggestion it be conducted by Alberta officials operating in remote contact with the private facility in Prince Albert.

Crown prosecutors took no position on the applications.

The matter will return to Court of King’s Bench in April, at which time the reports should be complete.

Reed faces allegations that he committed assault with a weapon, uttering threats, recklessly discharging a gun, pointing a firearm and a variety of weapons offences.

He faces five years in prison if convicted.

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