A man who pepper-sprayed a New Westminster police officer in the face after breaking into a Sapperton condo complex has been sentenced to two years less a day in jail and two years’ probation.
David Michael Schur was charged with breaking and entering and assaulting a peace officer with a weapon, after a break-in at the condo complex Nov. 21, 2013.
Police arrived on the scene to find a door off its hinges, a fire extinguisher discharged, storage lockers ransacked and pepper spray discharged near a stairwell, according facts outlined in B.C. Supreme Court Justice Murray Blok’s reasons for sentencing this summer.
A police dog and handler tracked Schur and another man, Nicholas Oquias, to a rooftop patio area.
The officer spotted Schur holding a screw driver but did not see Oquias.
After convincing Schur to drop the tool, the officer was about to handcuff him, when Schur started kicking and punching him.
During a struggle that followed, the officer was sprayed in the face with pepper spray and then struck from behind by Oquias.
The officer, his eyes swollen and burning, pulled away and backed against a wall with his service dog in front of him until other officers arrived to take control of the scene and the two suspects.
The assaulted officer was off work for a month and needed multiple medical treatments to get pepper-spray particles out of his eyes, according to facts presented in court.
Schur, who has multiple previous property-crime convictions, pleaded guilty to breaking and entering last September and was convicted of assaulting a peace officer with a weapon in January.
Crown prosecutor Nicholas Reithmeier called for a total three-year jail sentence for Schur’s crimes, while defence lawyer Mark Swartz asked for a sentence of less than two years so Schur, who struggles with addiction, could enter an intensive drug treatment program at a provincial facility.
Blok concluded Schur’s prospects of rehabilitation were not unreasonable since most of his convictions are for property crimes “no doubt” related to his drug addiction.
He pointed to a “substantial gap” in Schur’s criminal record from 2007 to 2013 that the judge said showed Schur is capable of maintaining a “proper law-abiding path with treatment a court supervision.”
Blok sentenced Schur to two years less a day with credit for time served, followed by two years’ probation, but warned Schur he didn’t have many chances left.
“You are 36 years old,” Blok told Schur after delivering his sentence. “If there is a next time, and I sincerely hope there will not be, there is a reasonable prospect that by that point you will be seen more as a career criminal than as a person who may yet reform himself, and the courts will deal with you accordingly. Do not waste this opportunity.”
