Cameron Walsh’s lawyer said his client’s pre-sentence report was textbook.
Cameron Walsh’s lawyer said his client’s pre-sentence report was textbook.
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The document, ordered before he was sentenced to about a year in jail for wielding an illegal knife at Lambton OPP officers in Grand Bend, detailed his childhood trauma and substance abuse, which is a common story heard in court.
Justice Mark Poland agreed Walsh’s background was troubling, but disagreed on what part of the story heard in court was textbook. In his view, it was how police officers responded to the incident, which he called heroic.
“Mr. Walsh’s own life was at risk. The lives of his family members were at risk,” the judge said. “It was a terrible, terrible scenario, and I simply cannot imagine how it was that those police officers managed to de-escalate the scenario and get the situation into a circumstance where nobody was profoundly injured or killed as a result of Mr. Walsh’s behavior .”
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The court heard police were called about an altercation at an Ontario Street North home, near Highway 21, on May 11, 2023 around 7:30 pm Walsh, who was in the home with several family members there, got drunk and caused a problem that prompted a call to police.
The 28-year-old North Middlesex resident came outside with a flick knife pressed up against his neck, then held it toward police while yelling at them to shoot him. Officers pointed their guns at him while others closed Highway 21, which was busy that Thursday night, in both directions and evacuated several neighbors.
But Walsh, who has ties to Grand Bend, Exeter and London, refused to put the knife down and threatened to kill one of the officers and made a more inappropriate comment about one of their family members. Then he repeatedly stabbed a tree.
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This gave officers a chance to hit him multiple times with their stun guns. He fell to the ground, but had to be hit again as he hung onto the knife. He caused a further disturbance while handcuffed in the back of the cruiser on the way to headquarters, forcing the officers to pull over and take control of him again.
Walsh, who initially was facing 11 charges, recently pleaded guilty in a Sarnia courtroom to carrying a weapon for a dangerous purpose, possessing a banned weapon without a license, possessing a prohibited weapon while under a court-ordered weapons ban, and uttering a death threat along with a handful of charges from unrelated cases. Now 30, he was sentenced to just shy of 11 months in jail.
While outlining the textbook pre-sentence report, Guggisberg noted his client started using drugs at an early age and eventually graduated to crystal meth and heroin. But he also suffered a brain injury from a near-drowning.
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Poland said acquired brain injuries are difficult to deal with. He also noted the pre-sentence report was well-written and a psychiatrist’s report about Walsh’s criminal responsibility was comprehensive.
But he returned to the police officers’ response and told Walsh every time he sees one, he should thank them as they’re the only reason he’s alive.
“The fact that you’re here today is a tribute to that training and the way those officers conducted themselves,” he said.
Walsh told the judge he would.
“I’m very sorry for that night,” he said from the prisoner’s box. “It won’t happen again. I promised that.”
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