Stabbing assault nets airsoft shooter additional time

By Lethbridge Herald on January 21, 2022.

Delon Shurtz

LETHBRIDGE HERALD

dshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com

A southern Alberta man who is serving a four-year prison term after shooting a police officer with an airsoft gun last year, received another prison sentence Thursday after pleading guilty to assault causing bodily harm.

Lance Fred Chalifoux was sentenced to two years in a federal penitentiary for stabbing his girlfriend with a knife during an altercation in Lethbridge on June 10, 2021. The sentence, however, will run concurrently with the longer sentence he is currently serving at the Dorchester Penitentiary in New Brunswick.

Chalifoux, who at the time of the stabbing was prohibited from carrying any weapons, was arguing with his girlfriend outside a northside business. The argument, which was over money and drugs, turned violent when Chalifoux pushed her then threatened to hit her.

After she retreated behind a tree, Chalifoux grabbed a knife from a bag he was carrying, stabbed her in the leg then fled on a bicycle. The woman was taken to the hospital where she required seven staples to close the deep wound.

The Crown and defence recommended Chalifoux receive a two-year sentence to run concurrently with his four-year sentence because all the offences were originally meant to be resolved together last year and would have resulted in a global sentence of the same duration.

The incident for which Chalifoux was sentenced to four years arose last July while he was wanted on an outstanding warrant relating to the stabbing attack a month earlier against his girlfriend.

At about noon on July 22 police received a call from a civilian that Chalifoux was at a residence on 5 Avenue North. Aware that he is a violent offender and could be armed, police, including members of the tactical team, cautiously approached the residence.

Police waited for several hours until Chalifoux left the residence and rode off on a bike. Shortly afterward an officer in a police vehicle approached Chalifoux, who, when he saw the patrol car, made a grab for the waistband of his pants. Believing Chalifoux was reaching for a gun, the officer struck him with his vehicle, knocking him off his bicycle. Chalifoux ran to the front of the vehicle, and as the officer approached, he jumped up, holding what appeared to be a black handgun.

The officer drew his own gun, told Chalifoux to stop and said he was under arrest, but Chalifoux ran off toward 6 Avenue South. After he had run several metres, Chalifoux turned and shot at the officer. The officer did not shoot back given the amount of traffic and number of pedestrians in the area, but he radioed other tactical team members, who, with guns drawn, began to flank the shooter.

The officer at whom Chalifoux fired his gun, was struck in the right foot and shin, and he scrambled for cover behind a shed. He checked for blood, didn’t see any, and realized as Chalifoux continued shooting at him that Chalifoux was actually armed with an airsoft pistol. The officer radioed the other officers who were approaching and told them Chalifoux did not have a real gun.

Officers ordered Chalifoux to throw the gun aside and lie down on the ground, which he did.

After Chalifoux was placed in cells at the police station, he appeared to overdose, and although he was given shots of Narcan, he continued to show symptoms. EMS was called, and believed Chalifoux may be faking the overdose, but he was taken to the hospital.

At the hospital Chalifoux spit at the emergency nurse attending to him, kicked officers and threatened to kill them.

Chalifoux was sentenced to four years in prison after he pleaded guilty last September to charges of assault, assaulting a peace officer, discharging a pistol to avoid arrest, resisting arrest and failing to comply with probation.