Cops seize guns following comments
A conversation between a gym-goer and an employee at Fit4less in Lower Sackville took an alarming turn this past winter when a 40-yearold customer started making “homophobic comments” about a Pride flag hanging on the wall, after mentioning how “the police were coming for his guns.”
He was prescient on the second point.
It was Jan. 23 when Ryan O’leary told the host on duty “he has several guns in his possession” and “he is a hunter.”
“He recently quit smoking marijuana and other drugs and he was getting ready for battle,” RCMP Const. Debra Lee said in a warrant application.
“He believes that the police or someone are coming to take his guns. When they do, he is prepared to do what needs to be done, possibly shooting the guns; O’leary stated he is ready and willing to go to war.”
‘HATES ANYONE WHO DOES’
Later that day, O’leary was signing up for the gym’s tanning booth when he “saw a Pride flag taped to the wall near the front desk, under the Fit4less inclusion policy,” Lee said.
“O’leary said he does not believe in the Pride community and hates anyone who does,” said the investigator.
O’leary made a false claim about the flag allowing men to have sex with minors.
“He used a pen and he put an X on the flag,” Lee said. “O’leary said he would bring in his own freedom signs and cover the flag.”
He was not acting aggressive, according to the employee at the front desk.
O’leary returned to the gym two days later and approached the same host on duty.
‘MANY LITTLE WINS’
“O’leary noticed the Pride flag had been removed,” the investigator said in information to obtain a warrant filed at Dartmouth provincial court.
When he asked the employee at the front desk if it had been taken down because he wrote on it, he was told yes.
“He made a sarcastic laugh,” Lee said. “O’leary stated it was a win for him and there are many little wins that are going on for him lately and this is probably the biggest.”
O’leary told the gym employee he has guns at home “and he is ready for battle if anyone wants to come,” said the investigator.
Lee went to the Sackville Drive gym Jan. 25 and spoke with the manager. He gave her O’leary’s phone number and email address. Then the manager noted O’leary had been using his girlfriend’s membership card to enter the gym for the past month. Her home address was on Smokey Drive in Lower Sackville.
TWO REGISTERED FIREARMS
The next day, the investigator received an email from Robert Ryan with the Chief Firearms Office for Nova Scotia. He noted O’leary had a valid possession and acquisition licence and two registered firearms: a Smith & Wesson 617 .22-calibre revolver, and a Girsan 9-mm semi-automatic handgun.
Lee drove past the home where O’leary’s girlfriend lived on Smokey Drive at about 9:50 a.m., spying a white Toyota Tacoma in the driveway registered to Ryan O’leary.
An RCMP sergeant drove past again that day at about 1 p.m.
One justice of the peace refused to grant a search warrant.
“The warrant was denied as she was not satisfied that items sought will be in the place to be searched,” Lee said.
Police arrested O’leary on Jan. 26. He told one officer that the firearms were at his parents’ home on Highway 1 in Ellershouse.
O’leary’s girlfriend told police that same day that he had been staying with her on Smokey Drive since last December. She told investigators that O’leary had three long guns at her place, but his handguns were at his home in Ellershouse.
‘POSSIBLY SHOOTING THE POLICE’
Lee went to a different justice of the peace, convincing her this time to grant a search warrant for O’leary’s home in Ellershouse.
“Issuing the warrant will allow me to secure the firearms to prevent O’leary from using them, possibly shooting the police as he stated (to the gym employee at Fit4less),” said the investigator.
“Seizing the firearms will afford evidence to the fact that O’leary was capable of following through with his threats.”
Mounties seized ammunition, the Smith & Wesson revolver and the Girsan handgun from O’leary’s home in Ellershouse on the evening of Jan. 26.
Ryan Douglas O’leary is scheduled to go on trial next January on two charges of uttering threats and one charge of mischief, stemming from incidents in Lower Sackville. The offence dates are Jan. 23 and 25.