A 29-year-old man who pepper-sprayed a Burnaby Mountie before being arrested with help from a police dog’s bite last summer has been handed a two-month conditional sentence to be served at a drug-treatment facility and one year of probation.
Yang-Ying Nan Wang pleaded guilty in January to assaulting a police officer with a weapon.
He was sentenced Monday in Vancouver provincial court.
The charges date back to July 3, 2021.
Just after 1 p.m. that day, Burnaby RCMP got a report of a pepper-spraying in the 4100 block of Dawson Street, according to agreed facts read out in court by Crown prosecutor Louis Gauld
A man had reportedly shot pepper spray in the direction of a Realtor showing some homes in the area.
After police arrived, an officer approached a man who matched the suspect description, Gauld said.
The man then shot the bear spray in the officer’s direction before fleeing on foot.
An extensive search ensued involving a police dog and a police helicopter, according to the facts.
The man, later identified as Wang, was eventually bitten on the lower leg by a police dog and arrested.
Since being released on bail in July, Wang has been living at the VisionQuest drug treatment facility in Logan Lake, B.C.
In a joint sentencing submission, Gauld and defence lawyer Chantal Paquette both called for a two-month conditional sentence, to be served at VisionQuest, followed by one year of probation.
Gauld noted Wang had been sentenced last April for robbery and had still been on probation on the day of the pepper-spraying.
Paquette said Wang had been in a state of drug-induced psychosis and "out of touch with reality" when he shot the pepper spray at the officer.
She acknowledged Wang had a history of committing serious offences while under the influence of drugs but said her client has made “incredible progress” at VisionQuest.
“He’s doing incredibly well. He recognizes how drugs have impacted his behaviour,” she said.
B.C. provincial court Judge Laura Bakan accepted the joint submission.
During his conditional sentence, Wang will have to stay at VisionQuest and abide by all the rules of that facility as well as a 10 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew. He is banned from contacting both of the people he deployed pepper spray at.
He is also banned from possessing any weapons, including bear spray.
Follow Cornelia Naylor on Twitter @CorNaylor
Email [email protected]
