Lethbridge Police Service station. (Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Police caution against vigilantism following paintball shooting at SCS

Aug 26, 2019 | 2:34 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Lethbridge Police say they know that many people are passionate about issues relating to the Supervised Consumption Site (SCS) on either side, but are asking that people not take matters into their own hands.

The comments from Downtown Policing Unit Acting Sergeant Ryan Darroch follow an incident just after midnight on Saturday, August 24th.

According to police, 29-year-old Jesse John James Bolman was arrested in his home after allegedly firing multiple paintballs at staff and users of the SCS. A staff member was hit several times in the leg, arm, torso, and face. More details on the incident here.

“Mr. Bolman has taken full responsibility for his actions and has offered his deepest apologies to the victims in this tragic event,” says Darroch.

Darroch did not elaborate on the suspect’s motives, electing to leave that up to the court process. He did say, however, that alcohol was a factor.

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“[There are] other things that have kind of polarized this whole issue and people are quite passionate about this all across our city. People are frustrated, and that’s why we’re cautioning people to not take actions into their own hands.”

Instead, Darroch is encouraging the public to contact the appropriate authorities if they notice anything suspicious. A list of public safety contacts from the City of Lethbridge and Lethbridge Police Service are listed below:

Public Safety Contact Information. (Supplied by City of Lethbridge)

Although he did not specifically relate it to this case, he also cautioned against the use of threatening or aggressive language on social media.

“We don’t promote any type of hate or negative comments from any group or person against anyone. We don’t strive to have that type of behaviour within our community, and anybody who takes kind of that negative type of opinion may find themselves the subject of a police investigation.”

Darroch says LPS is already dealing with a high volume of calls, and therefore does not want to be known as the “Facebook Police”, and is instead asking social media users to be more careful about what they post online.

Although ARCHES, the group that runs the SCS, have not beefed up their security following the incident this weekend, they do have security on hand 24/7 while LPS has two units dedicated to downtown enforcement.