Canmore man who shot at police with a 3D-printed gun gets 7½ years in prison

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Calgary·New

A Canmore antheral who changeable astatine constabulary and was past struck successful the look by the officer’s instrumentality occurrence has been handed a situation condemnation of 7 years and six months.

Austin Desylva, 28, pleaded blameworthy earlier this twelvemonth

Meghan Grant · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 30, 2025 6:07 PM EDT | Last Updated: 12 minutes ago

An arial presumption of 2 vehicles facing each other, surrounded connected 3 sides by trees.

A Canmore antheral who changeable astatine constabulary and was past struck successful the look by the officer's instrumentality occurrence has been handed a 7½-year situation sentence.

Austin Desylva, 28, pleaded blameworthy earlier this twelvemonth to firearms, cause and driving offences stemming from a February 2023 incident.

Desylva admitted to fleeing a postulation halt and shooting doubly astatine the RCMP serviceman who had pursued him.

Caught successful crossfire risk

At the time, he was equipped with a 3D-printed Glock-style handgun.

"Mr. Desylva took his shots portion driving a conveyance successful and astir downtown Canmore and aboriginal successful a residential country of Canmore, which enactment galore guiltless persons astatine hazard of being caught successful the crossfire," noted Court of King's Bench Justice Keith Yamauchi successful his sentencing decision.

"Mr Desylva's actions were not impulsive."

RCMP serviceman testifies Canmore antheral was 'shooting to kill' arsenic justice releases video of incident

It was conscionable aft 11 p.m. erstwhile Desylva pulled a U-turn to evade a postulation halt connected Rundle Drive successful Canmore.

RCMP Const. Reyno La Cock noticed and began to prosecute Desylva. About 2 minutes into the pursuit, Desylva took a changeable astatine La Cock's constabulary vehicle, hitting the windshield.

He past fired a 2nd shot, striking a adjacent home.

The serviceman radioed for backup and cornered the shooter astatine the extremity of a cul-de-sac.

La Cock opened fire, shooting 25 times astatine Desylva, who remained successful his car.

A postulation halt successful Canmore that turned into a car pursuit with shots fired

On Feb. 24, 2023, a Canmore antheral fled a postulation halt successful his Buick and past changeable astatine an RCMP officer. The serviceman pursued the man, cornered him astatine the extremity of a cul-de-sac and fired 25 shots. CBC News has edited this video for length.

Finally, Desylva got retired and fled into the woods, leaving a humor way that would pb constabulary to his hiding spot against a adjacent location 2 hours later.

Desylva was severely injured, with gunshot wounds to his look and neck, and suffering frostbite.

ASIRT cleared officer

Police aboriginal seized 40 grams of cocaine, a value standard and $1,800 successful cash.

Desylva admitted helium was dealing drugs astatine the clip of the incident.

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) investigated the shooting and cleared La Cock of immoderate wrongdoing.

Prosecutor Aaron Rankin had asked Yamauchi to enforce an eight-year sentence, portion defence lawyer Dale Fedorchuk projected a five-year situation term.

With recognition for the clip he's already spent down bars, Desylva has astir 4 years and 3 months near to serve.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Meghan Grant is simply a justness affairs reporter. She has been covering courts, transgression and stories of constabulary accountability successful confederate Alberta for much than a decade. Send Meghan a communicative extremity astatine [email protected].

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