Kathleen Lippa
Northern News Services

Coppermine (Mar 15/04) - A good deed led to an assault against a police officer at a Kugluktuk home recently.

In the early hours of March 1, a 29-year-old RCMP officer with the Kugluktuk detachment was doing his patrol when he spotted a female stumbling towards home.

Instead of taking her to the jail to sober up, the officer decided to give her a lift home.

When they arrived, he found that her home was anything but tranquil. There were three intoxicated men in the home, as well as three children.

As it was nearly 3 a.m. and there were no sober adults in the home to care for the children, the officer decided to contact social services.

That's when things got ugly.

One of the men, a 21-year-old visitor, became angry with the police officer and started yelling at him.

"It was the quickest I've ever seen a person escalate in a situation," said the officer, who does not wish to be named. "It went from co-operative to the threat of bodily harm in the snap of a finger. "The accused worked himself into an anger and charged at me. I quickly backed away from him and he kept coming after me."

The officer used a taser gun to try and deter the man. The taser distributes 50,000 volts of electricity. When used, it interrupts the nervous system without causing any permanent damage.

In this case, the threat of the taser didn't work.

"We had to wrestle a little bit," the officer said.

Suddenly, the accused grabbed a chair and threatened to attack the officer with it.

Back up officers arrived quickly and the accused was arrested and charged with breach of probation, assault with a weapon, assaulting a peace officer and uttering death threats. There were no injuries.

"It was mostly a wrestling match," the officer said.

The accused is scheduled to appear in court April 26.