Man who walked along busy street with fake gun jailed

Guilty man demonstrated ‘extraordinarily bad lapse of judgment’ due to drug use, lawyer says

A Niagara man who walked down the middle of a busy St. Catharines street with what appeared to a be handgun will spend the next five months behind bars.

Tristan Mason appeared in Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines earlier this month and pleaded guilty to a charge of possession of an imitation firearm for a purpose dangerous to the public peace.

Court heard a witness spotted the 24-year-old walking down the middle of a downtown street earlier this year and “fumbling” with what appeared to be silver and black handgun in his waistband.

The witness called police and officers located the defendant on St. Paul Street.

When he reached for his waistband, court was told, police drew their weapons. He was subsequently subdued by police and arrested.

The weapon was inspected and determined to be a BB gun.

“He’s lucky he wasn’t shot,” said defence counsel John Bothwell. “He’s lucky (police) didn’t escalate their use of force to something he couldn’t come back from.”

The lawyer said his client demonstrated “an extraordinarily bad lapse of judgment,” due to drug use and asked the judge to consider imposing a sentence of time served.

“He had no intention of walking into a crowd and overtly brandishing it or committing any offence with it.”

Assistant Crown attorney Stephanie Ford advocated for a jail sentence.

“I’m sure your honour is aware of the increased prevalence of firearms in all communities and, unfortunately, we’re seeing more and more of it here in Niagara,” she told Judge Donald Wolfe.

Court heard the defendant was on a 10-year weapons prohibition order at the time of the incident stemming from a January 2020 criminal conviction.

In addition to the custodial sentence, Mason was placed on probation for three years and banned from having any weapons in his possession for life.