MOOSE JAW — Brandon Bluecloud’s attack last fall on a bank patron with a syringe may have been random, but his actions were serious enough to send him to jail for nearly two years.
Bluecloud, 29, appeared in Moose Jaw Provincial Court recently, where he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, three counts of mischief and three counts of breaching an undertaking for offences that occurred on Oct. 3, 2023.
At roughly 9:11 a.m. that day, officers responded to a report of a suspicious occurrence at TD Bank. Once there, officers learned that Bluecloud had approached a customer from behind, stabbed that person multiple times in the lower back region with a syringe, and then fled. With the help of the business’s security camera, police confirmed that the weapon in question was a syringe and that Bluecloud was holding it.
Bluecloud and the victim were unknown to one another, while the attack appeared to be random.
As part of a joint submission, Bluecloud was sentenced to 16 months in jail and 18 months of probation afterward. However, because he spent 288 days in custody, the court credited him with 432 days, which means he has 48 days left to serve.
Crown prosecutor Monique Paquin presented an agreed statement of facts during the sentencing and pointed out that the Crown wanted to send a message of denunciation and deterrence for a seemingly “random attack.”
Meanwhile, defence lawyer Deanna Harris told Judge Brian Hendrickson that Bluecloud has a history of drug addiction and mental health challenges, while he was in a “drug-inducted” haze when he commenced the attack. Harris added that doctors have diagnosed Bluecloud with schizophrenia, and he cannot use drugs that a physician has not prescribed.
The judge accepted the joint submission, noting that while little information was available about how much medical attention the victim received, this stabbing was still serious, considering the victim did not know whether there was anything in the syringe or if it was a dirty needle.
In a similar situation, Judge Hendrickson recalled a past case where a police officer was accidentally stabbed with a needle during a search and had to undergo treatment to ensure he wasn’t infected with anything.
