90 days for threatening Mounties
Inuvik man initially arrested after reports he was brandishing axe downtown
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Published Monday, December 22, 2014
INUVIK
An Inuvik man has been sentenced to 90 days in jail after pleading guilty to threatening to kill three RCMP officers in the community.
Twenty-three-year-old John Thrasher was sentenced by deputy judge Brian Bruser in territorial court in Yellowknife on Dec. 17. Court heard Thrasher was arrested in Inuvik on Oct. 3 after police responded to a complaint of a man swinging an axe near the town office.
According to Crown prosecutor Jen Bond, after Thrasher was arrested, he made several threats to police, adding it was his intention to burn the whole town to the ground. She said he was on probation at the time.
Bond said Thrasher's speech was slurred and he was moderately intoxicated at the time of his arrest.
"He was belligerent, threatening and spit on the back seat of the police vehicle," said Bond.
She said once Thrasher was lodged in a cell at the Inuvik RCMP detachment, he told officers he knew where they lived and he was going to kill all three of them. Bond said police never did find the axe. She asked Bruser for a three-month sentence.
Thrasher's lawyer, Serge Petitpas, told the court Thrasher was born in Edmonton but raised in Inuvik. He said Thrasher is currently unemployed and had been living either with his mother or at a shelter. Petitpas said Thrasher was the victim of an assault in 2011 that left him with a severe concussion.
"He still suffers trauma from that attack, your honour. It has affected his ability to think and find work," said Petitpas.
"He was intoxicated at the time and doesn't remember the incident. He apologizes to the officers."
Bruser said he took Thrasher's personal circumstances into account in deciding his sentence, but he told Thrasher that was no excuse for his actions.
"The public has to be protected," Bruser said. "Your actions were unacceptable. The police were just doing their job."
Bruser also prohibited Thrasher from owning or using a firearm for five years upon his release from jail.
