A Drumheller man was given time served for flight from police and careless use of a firearm.
John McConnell appeared in provincial court in Drumheller in custody via closed-circuit television, where he pleaded guilty to a number of charges.
The court heard that on September 24, 2020, Constable Doucette was conducting a patrol and came across McConnell and a female in a black Nissan Altima. He attempted to make a traffic stop, when the vehicle fled, heading east on Highway 575 towards Nacmine. At times the vehicle was driven on the wrong side of the road and ran over a curb, with speeds estimated at 100 KPH.
Later the patrol located the vehicle in Greenwood Villa, and McConnell was taken into custody.
On December 17, 2020, RCMP was conducting a curfew check, and McConnell was not at his residence. The following day police conducted a second curfew check, and McConnell was not at home.
This time the police waited for him to return. As he was being taken into custody, a search revealed a rifle clip and .22 ammunition.
He also pleaded guilty to failing to report to probation while on release.
The crown and defense agreed on a sentencing submission of 85 days. McConnell has been in custody since November 17, 2021, and had accrued enough pretrial custody to satisfy the sentence. He was also given a 5-year firearm prohibition.
Defense for McConnell indicated he plans to move to Calgary and continue to work on his addiction issues.

Drumheller RCMP Staff Sergeant Ed Bourque provided town council with the 2021 Quarter 4 Drumheller municipal crime report and statistics during the regular Monday, January 24 council meeting.
There was an overall nine per cent increase in total criminal code offenses in 2021 compared to the previous year, though S/Sgt Bourque says it’s important to look at the whole picture and not just the statistics.
“Criminal Harassment, for example, we had two (cases) in 2017, 11 in 2018, then it went down and back up to 11 in 2021,” S/Sgt Bourque tells the Mail.
While at first glance it may seem as though Criminal Harassment files have gone up by a staggering 450 per cent since 2017, S/Sgt Bourque notes the reality is a single additional case can disproportionally inflate the statistics due to Drumheller’s low crime numbers.
Although increasing calls can be a point of concern, S/Sgt Bourque points out these increases are minimal in comparison to other municipalities where a 100 per cent increase could mean hundreds of additional cases.
S/Sgt Bourque also noted some offences tend to increase in a cyclical pattern due to extenuating factors such as prolonged cold weather and financial struggles putting additional strains on people and leading to possible calls.
Another apparent increase in crime is most likely related to an increase in officers carrying out more community patrols. The additional patrols have allowed officers to conduct more checks on known and habitual offenders in these communities, which has resulted in additional charges for Failure to Comply and Breach.
Although some criminal offences did increase, there were some areas where the statistics decreased.
There was a 43 per cent decrease in Break and Enter instances, equating to 41 fewer instances; motor vehicle thefts were also down 32 per cent with seven fewer instances.
A similar trend was also seen in the rural, provincial areas serviced by the Drumheller detachment, including the villages of Carbon, Delia, Morrin, and Munson, and the hamlets of Dalum, Dorothy, and Rowley.