Bear spray assault nets man jail sentence

By Delon Shurtz on July 14, 2021.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com

A Central Alberta man was handed a short jail sentence after he attacked a woman with whom he was drinking alcohol earlier this year.
Kieran Lightning, who is from the Hobbema area south of Wetaskiwin, was sentenced to 30 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to one count of assault with a weapon. He was given credit, however, for the equivalent of 14 days spent in pre-trial custody, leaving 16 days on his sentence.
Court was told that on the morning of May 12 Lightning went to a woman’s home in Pincher Creek to have some drinks. He pulled out a can of bear spray and placed it on the table, but said nothing about it. About two hours later, Lightning, 19, picked up the bear spray, again without saying anything about it, and left the home.
But 30 minutes later the woman heard a loud knock at her door, and when she opened it, Lightning shot her in the face with the bear spray.
“Apparently Mr. Lightning must have taken exception to some occurrence that had occurred before he had left,” Crown Prosecutor Clayton Giles said.
Giles said the woman did not require medical help, although her eyes hurt and she was seeing double for sometime afterward.
“There was absolutely no reason to spray somebody in the face,” Giles added.
He pointed out Lightning – who appeared in court by CCTV from the Edmonton Remand Centre - has a criminal record as a youth, and the adult jail sentence should serve as a warning that if he doesn’t change, the “self destructive” path he was on as a youth, he will continue on it as an adult.

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