Subject of Calgary stand-off was under court-ordered weapons ban
Posted Mar 19, 2024 12:09 pm.
Last Updated Mar 19, 2024 2:46 pm.
The man involved in the 30-hour stand-off with police in Penbrooke Meadows last week was on lifetime weapons prohibition, Parole Board of Canada documents obtained by CityNews reveal.
Patrick Robert Kimmel was shot and killed by police on Friday, March 15, after barricading himself inside his home, triggering an hours long stand-off.
Police were trying to execute a search warrant when Kimmel started firing at officers. After the incident concluded, police said around 100 rounds of ammunition were fired throughout the 30-hour event.
Documents show Kimmel had “a high level of comfort with a criminal lifestyle” and a long history of not following court-imposed conditions.
In 2022, he began serving his first federal sentence of two years, one month and 19 days, for possessing a prohibited firearm with ammunition.
WATCH: A man is dead after a 30-hour stand-off in Penbrooke Meadows
Mount Royal University criminologist Doug King says it’s important to understand that there are limited resources available to ensure criminals stay on the straight and narrow once they’re released.
“If the offender is engaged in things like possessing firearms, or using illegal substances, the parole officer would have a very hard time knowing that,” he explained. “So there is no kind of follow up to do say a visit at a home and do a search — that doesn’t fly within the context of our criminal justice system.
“So often times the only time we find out that someone has violated conditions of their release is when they do something illegal, as in this case, something extraordinarily dangerous,” King added.
Aside from weapons, the documents show Kimmel had issues with substance abuse. It was those issues, along with a fight he had with an ex-partner that led to his day parole being revoked back in 2022.
During a meeting about his conditions breach, Kimmel became very angry and swore at his parole officers, documents show.
“It is clear that you continue to require assistance in managing your substance abuse and emotional problems. Following a treatment plan will encourage you to become involved in both structural correctional programming and community counselling to begin to work through long-standing emotional issues. It is assessed that you still require significant intervention and treatment in order to be ready for community supervision,” the parole board said in its decision.
Kimmel was assessed as a moderate risk to reoffend. The parole board predicted that if he was to reoffend, the crime would most likely involve weapons.
During the 30-hour standoff questions arose as to why police waited so long to intervene.
King said the answer is simple: officer safety.
“If you say ‘OK, we are going to breach the door and barge in, and gunfire starts happening, officers can get killed,” he said.
Dave Sweet, a retired Calgary Police detective agrees, saying officer safety was likely top of mind in decision making.
“Although it can be inconvenient and unsettling for people, it is also them [police] working through the process of trying to resolve it in the best way they possibly can for the safety of the officers that are there, the safety of the public, of course, and then hopefully the safety of the person that they are there to deal with, ” he said.
