Teen charged with waving replica gun makes court appearance

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/07/2016 (2830 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A teen charged with waving a replica gun around in the middle of the city’s busiest intersection appeared in court Wednesday as mental-health officials continue to work on her case.

The 17-year-old girl is in custody at the Manitoba Youth Centre and has not applied for bail.

Hillarie Tasche, the defence lawyer appearing on the teen’s behalf, told court the Manitoba Adolescent Treatment Centre is working on completing its evaluation report and asked that the proceedings resume on Aug. 5.

The girl spoke twice during her brief court appearance: once in reply to the judge to indicate that yes, she understood what was happening, and again to say a quick hello to her father, who waved to her from the other side of the prisoner’s box as she was being led back into custody.

The teen, who can’t be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was arrested on July 19 after police received several calls about a masked woman wandering through traffic at Portage and Main and holding a gun to her head. Police tackled the individual to the ground, seized the gun — which turned out to be fake — just before 10 a.m. that Tuesday morning.

The 17-year-old has been charged with public mischief, causing a disturbance and possession of a firearm for a dangerous purpose.