Man involved in 16-hour Iqaluit standoff sentenced 21 months

A man who fired an air rifle at Iqaluit RCMP during a 16-hour standoff last September is “lucky” to be alive to serve jail time, said an Iqaluit judge.

Police escort a man and a woman from an apartment on Tasilik Street, where police spent 16 hours in a standoff after responding to a call that shots had been fired. Jayko Kownirk was sentenced for four charges on Aug. 20 related to the incident. (Photo by Daron Letts)

Justice Mark Mossey sentenced Jayco Kownirk on Aug. 20 to two years, eight months and six days in jail for four of the 15 offences he faced. The other 11 were dropped.

Of this sentence, Kownirk still has four months to serve after Mossey gave him 492 days’ credit for the 328 days he has already spent in custody since his arrest.

“The near fatal result of mixing alcohol with poor decision making and a firearm, could easily have cost him his life,” Mossey wrote in his decision.

On the afternoon of Sept. 27, 2025, police responded to reports of shots fired in an apartment on Tasilik Street in the city’s Lake Subdivision. The RCMP deployed a drone and used crisis negotiators during the resulting standoff.

Police issued a shelter-in-place order emergency alert after 1 a.m.

There were about 20 officers dressed in camouflage tactical uniforms on scene at the height of the incident.

Officers remained on scene until the standoff ended around 4 p.m. Sept. 28 when officers deployed tear gas into the residence to coax Kownirk outside, where he eventually surrendered.

The stand-off “paralyzed” the neighbourhood, Mossey said.

Kownirk pleaded guilty to firing the air rifle while committing mischief, uttering death threats against officers and breaching an existing probation order to keep the peace.

The mischief charge was among those withdrawn.

Kownirk also pleaded guilty to theft under $5,000, committed 10 days before the incident, which contributed to mitigating his sentence.

Mossey took into account systemic issues that contributed to Kownirk’s long list of property crimes that escalated to violent offences but added it was unnecessary to detail them in his ruling.

Kownirk is banned from owning a firearm for life, except for the purpose of sustenance hunting.