A young Windsor man who attempted an armed carjacking last summer while in the throes of a mental health crisis, seeking a fatal confrontation with police, has been sentenced to five years in prison.
A Desperate Act on Walker Road
The incident occurred on June 3, 2025, on Walker Road. The 24-year-old man, armed with a modified SKS assault rifle, approached a motorist in an attempt to steal the vehicle. Windsor police responded swiftly to emergency calls from frightened witnesses.
Defence lawyer Dan Scott told the Ontario Court of Justice this week that his client was at a desperate point in his life and was actively seeking a "suicide-by-cop" confrontation. Scott praised the officers who responded, stating they "exercised incredible restraint" in defusing the high-risk situation without any injuries or loss of life.
A Loaded Weapon and a Life in Crisis
Investigators later made a chilling discovery: the rifle was loaded with a live round in the chamber and several additional bullets ready to be fired. Assistant Crown attorney Jayme Lesperance emphasized the grave danger, telling the court, "Six individuals in the community, including himself, could have been harmed." He described the terror such an event engenders in the community.
A pre-sentence report prepared for Justice Daniel Topp depicted the offender as "a ticking time bomb on the day of the offence." The court heard the man was suffering from anxiety disorder, PTSD, and other mental illnesses. He was homeless and using substances to cope, compounded by the recent tragic loss of his three-month-old son to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), which also led to the collapse of his relationship.
"He knows he's smart, he just fell off the tracks real bad," Scott said, explaining that the infant's death "put him in a tailspin." Wandering the street with the loaded rifle, Scott acknowledged, "it could have ended horribly, for anyone involved."
Joint Submission Leads to Five-Year Sentence
Both the defence and Crown prosecution pointed to the man's early guilty pleas, young age, and his mental health struggles—which are now being addressed—in jointly recommending a five-year prison term. Lesperance called it a "significant sentence in the Canadian justice system" meant to deliver a message of denunciation and deterrence.
With credit for 234 days spent in pre-sentence custody (calculated as 351 days), the man will serve a balance of approximately four years. On January 18, 2026, Justice Topp agreed with the joint submission and imposed the five-year sentence.
