Picking up toy was big mistake, says ‘gunman’
AMAN waving around an imitation gun that caused a police stand-off in the middle of a packed city park has said it was all “just a big mistake”.
On June 15, police received a report that Filip Adam Nowak was walking around Walter Road in Swansea carrying an “Uzi-type machine gun”.
A witness was driving around Brynmor Crescent and saw Nowak holding the gun at arm’s length and pointing it at people from the other side of the road.
He reported it to South Wales Police, who sent firearms officers to the scene.
They found him at Cwmdonkin Park, and approached him from a distance, instructing him to get to his knees with his hands on his head.
They arrested him, and recovered his backpack on the ground, with a plastic toy gun device resting behind it.
The gun was described as “light and plastic” and inscribed on it was “MI6 imitation electric sound toy gun.”
Nowak, of Tan y Coed in Clydach, appeared before Swansea Crown Court for sentencing, having previously pleaded guilty to carrying an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence,
The 25-year-old told officers on interview he found the item while he was walking home from university.
Judge Rees described the incident as “unbelievable.”
Mitigating, Tom Scapens said: “It was a BB gun with missing parts and broken bits.
“He was walking up the street with it.
“He admits he was waving around.
“He picked up the gun because he thought it was cool.
“He did not think members of the public could have been alarmed by him waving it round.
“He is a Polish national and his it English is good.
“If somebody held the gun or got close to it they would have realised it was plastic and would not have been alarmed.
“He realises carrying it through Uplands would have upset people.
“He was studying and since completed graphic design and illustration.
“He is in the process of trying to seek employment.
“He found the gun on a wall outside a property.
“While he felt at times what he was doing was innocuous he clearly had a lack of maturity or clarity in this situation.”
Judge Rees, summing up, said: “Guns have no place in our society, actual or copy guns.
“There is a constant need for people to be vigilant.
“There is a heightened state of alert against terror currently in this country, and it beggars belief how someone can do something so reckless and pointless and dangerous.”
Nowak was given six months imprisonment, suspended for 12 months.
He has also been given a community order and must carry out 120 hours of unpaid work and a 20-day rehabilitation activity requirement.
Nowak spoke to the Post outside Swansea Crown Court following the conclusion of the case.
He said: “I feel I have been labelled a terrorist to the public.
“I picked up an accessory, but some people saw it and thought I was a threat to the public.
“I’m glad I was able to experience this sort of experience (court), but it has caused me and police and the courts unneeded attention.
“I feel it has been blown out of proportion.
“I’m not going to pick up anything I see on the street any more, apart from maybe a stick.
“I have no intention of being a threat.
“It was just a big mistake.”