Youth gets lower security jail
An alleged member of the Vaughan Road Bloods whose gun misfired when he tried to shoot at a police officer who’d approached to warn about jaywalking will be transferred to lower security custody.
The young man, identifiable only as K.H., pleaded guilty in February to attempting to discharge a firearm, possessing a loaded firearm and assaulting a police officer.
Both Crown counsel John Healy and defence lawyer Donald McLeod have told Superior Court Justice John McMahon they will seek probation for K.H., who can’t be named because he was 17 at the time.
On Thursday, the judge agreed to order K.H. moved from secure to open custody — akin to a halfway house — in anticipation of his being sentenced to probation next month. Now 19, he has spent 28 months in pre-trial custody.
Const. Jimmy DaSilva Cristopulo and two other traffic officers were patrolling the Vaughan Rd. and Oakwood Ave. area on the night of Nov. 20, 2010, when they saw the youth and two young men exit a bus and jaywalk across a busy street.
They approached to warn them about jaywalking, according to evidence. But the youth fled, holding his right hand to his chest. Christopulo chased him for a block, ordering him to stop and surrender.
K.H. had been stopped 75 to 100 times by police in a year and had no criminal record, Justice Todd Ducharme has stated.
K.H. turned, drew out a 9-mm handgun and fired twice at the officer. But the gun was loaded with .32-calibre bullets, the wrong kind, and misfired, Ducharme has stated.
Cristopulo drew his own sidearm, but saw a woman walking with a child and pushing a stroller on the other side of K.H., so he held fire.
Cristopulo and another officer then arrested K.H, who resisted fiercely, kicking and punching.
McLeod disputes K.H. was a part of the Vaughan Road Bloods, saying he was labelled by living in the area. The Crown pointed to posted photos of K.H. with gang members.
Alex Frederick, then 19, pleaded guilty to possessing a loaded prohibited firearm and assaulting a peace officer in the same incident and was sentenced to three years.