Nunavut youth gets jail time for stabbing police officer

Buddy Mala, in custody in Rankin Inlet, will serve another five months in jail for repeatedly stabbing a police officer this past June. (FILE PHOTO)

A Cambridge Bay youth who stabbed an RCMP officer during a run-in with police will spend another five months in jail, as part of a sentence imposed Nov. 2 at the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit.

Buddy Mala, 19, had already pleaded guilty at an earlier court date to one count of aggravated assault of a peace officer, as well as possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, when Justice Susan Cooper imposed a jail sentence of one year, minus time served, plus two years of probation.

On June 11, the Cambridge Bay RCMP detachment received a call that Mala was acting distraught and waiving a firearm while threatening to kill police officers.

The RCMP found Mala outside a local residence, wielding a pellet gun. Mala shouted at the two responding officers to “shoot me, shoot me,” Cooper told the court.

Police chased Mala into a building. Mala stabbed one officer during the attempt, while yelling “I’m going to fucking kill you.”

Mala stabbed the police officer two more times before he was successfully restrained, Cooper said. After the stabbing, police also had tried to Taser him.

The young man continued to say that he would “wipe out cops,” as he was brought into the police station, Cooper said, but she characterized Mala’s actions that day as “meant to hurt himself.”

“The incident might be described as a failed attempt of suicide by cop,” Cooper concluded, but admitted the multiple stab wounds that the police officer suffered were aggravating factors in her sentence.

Cooper’s one-year sentence was less than the two-to-three-year sentence requested by the Crown, but more than the three years of probation, plus time served, suggested by Mala’s lawyer, Paul Falvo.

Cooper described Mala as “an intelligent man who has not received the education he should have,” while Mala listened to his sentence over the phone from the Rankin Inlet corrections facility.

Cooper said Mala had never applied himself to his studies while in public school, dropping out in Grade 10, and that he is still “essentially illiterate” and operating at a Grade 3 level of education.

But Mala was “social and receptive to assistance,” Cooper said, and involved himself in community activities and volunteered at the Cambridge Bay health centre before his run-in with the police.

“Given Mr. Mala’s young age, lack of a criminal record and the circumstances of his life, rehabilitation must be considered,” Cooper said.

But Cooper noted that a court must always impose a sentence that deters and denounces crimes that injure peace officers in the line of duty.

The officer stabbed by Mala recovered from the injuries.

Cooper called on Mala to take advantage of his remaining time jail to seek the education services available.

“It isn’t that you’re not capable of doing those things, it’s that you haven’t had the opportunity to learn them,” she said.

Mala was also given a 10-year firearm prohibition, and his DNA will be entered into a national database of offenders.

Mala will also have to “seek counselling as directed” while serving two years of probation after he is released from custody.