Needle threat earns man two month jail sentence
By Delon Shurtz on October 29, 2021.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com
Threatening mall security officers with hypodermic needles has netted a 34-year-old man a two-month jail sentence.
Charles Theodore Big Head was sentenced Wednesday in Lethbridge provincial court after he pleaded guilty to one count of assault with a weapon.
Big Head, 34, was seen about 5 p.m. Sept. 22 carrying items of clothing in a store in the Park Place Shopping Centre. A security officer grew suspicious when Big Head noticed her, then dropped the items he was carrying on the floor. Big Head then chose several more items and walked out of the store without paying, setting off the alarm.
Big Head dropped those items, as well, and walked away, despite being told to stop. He finally turned around and opened two packages of needles, then waved them like weapons toward the security officer and a second security officer who had arrived on the scene.
The officers instructed him to drop the needles, but Big Head refused and left the shopping centre, crossed the street and entered Galt Gardens where he was subdued and arrested by three security officers.
Big Head also pleaded guilty to single counts of breaching release orders and drug possession. Big Head had been ordered by the court to stay away from the shopping centre, but on Oct. 16 he was seen in the mall by security. He was arrested and searched, during which security found a small amount of fentanyl.
Big Head, who defence said suffered from drug addiction but is now sober, was sentenced to 14 days on each of the charges, which will run concurrently to each other and to the 60-day sentence for assault with a weapon. He was, however, given credit of 53 days spent in pre-trial custody, leaving only seven days on his sentence.
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What a joke! Security do not have weapons to protect themselves and must depend solely on training, other guard support and police responding fast.
Addicts now are able to do as they please in this city, with very little action taken. There is nothing to deter them! We have given them free reign and they know. They are getting very hard to move along when caught on private property, because they know that if police are called, it will take a enough for them to respond, that the addicts can continue doing their drugs, relax for a bit, then slowly put their stuff away and move along before police arrive! They know exactly what they can get away with, which is a lot now!
This is our own fault! We have sat back and allowed this happen! These are our streets and we do have a say what happens on them, just like we have a say what happens in our neighbourhoods!
This is just an example of do many, how justice is no deterrent anymore! If they do end up in a correction facility that is a joke in itself! We do not rehabilitate anymore and drugs are in those facilities, with some becoming addicts while incarcerated. We can only blames ourselves for allowing all of this!
These types of incidents happen daily in this city, but many think they are isolated cases! If you really knew what happens everyday just in the downtown core!