Mountie praised for not shooting

Axe-wielding Keremeos man threatened police officer who was called in to help

An RCMP constable was praised in Penticton court for showing “remarkable restraint,” when a Keremeos man approached him and threatened the officer’s life. Prior to sentencing 19-year-old Nathaniel Douglas on Thursday, Judge Gale Sinclair told the court he admired Const. Sheldon Herman for his decision not to fire his weapon at Douglas as he swung an axe at the officer with admitted intent to harm him.

“It was a very dangerous (situation),” Sinclair told the court. “There was definitely potential need to use lethal force.”

Herman, who was not present in court for Douglas’s sentencing, was called to a residence in Keremeos just after 7 p.m. on Oct. 25, 2016, after receiving a report of a “suicidal male repeatedly stabbing himself with a steak knife.”

In his report, Herman recalled arriving on the scene to find Douglas in the yard holding a large axe and refusing to drop it when asked.

The officer asked Douglas to drop the axe a second time, and drew his weapon and began walking backwards, away from Douglas, when the troubled teen raised the axe behind his head and began to approach the officer.

Herman deployed his OC spray and sprayed Douglas in the face twice, with Douglas relenting after the second spray.

Douglas was restrained and attended to by first responders, who determined his selfinflicted wounds from the steak knife to be “superficial.” Douglas’s grandmother, who had initially contacted the RCMP regarding her grandson’s erratic behaviour that evening, later told the RCMP that just prior to the incident Douglas had consumed two bottles of vodka and seven grams of cocaine.

While in custody, Douglas reportedly told RCMP officers he “wanted to die,” and wondered why Herman didn’t “just shoot him.”

Douglas has remained in custody since his arrest and has undergone a psychological evaluation where he was determined to be not criminally responsible for his actions on the evening of Oct. 25.

In his summary, Sinclair said he assessed Douglas’s issue as a “booze and cocaine,” problem and warned the young man, who appeared by video, that continuing down his current path would land him “back in jail or dead.”

Douglas was sentenced to a total of 183 days with 99 days credit and a one-year probationary period with conditions including abstention from drugs and alcohol, and possession of a weapon of any kind.