Man with imitation gun who threw knife at police pleads guilty

Police had to use Tasers to subdue an out-of-control intoxicated Cody Rousseau after he attacked another man with a wooden club and hurled a knife at an officer.

The assaults took place on the night of Nov. 2 at a multi-unit apartment building in the 500 block of Second Line West.

Rousseau, 29, pleaded guilty Tuesday in a Sault Ste. Marie courtroom to five offences stemming from the incident. 

He was convicted of break and enter to commit the indictable offence of assault causing bodily harm, assault with a weapon (the club), assaulting a police officer with a knife, carrying an imitation firearm and mischief for damaging a door.

Ontario Court Justice Heather Mendes heard city police responded to an assault complaint at 10:30 p.m.

A building resident told officers Rousseau had kicked in his door, forcing his way into the apartment and threatening to beat him up.

The accused "held him up against the wall by the neck" and then began striking him with a wooden club, assistant Crown attorney Blair Hagan said.

The victim suffered an injury to his head, and was treated at the scene.

Rousseau, who had been outside the building arguing with another man when police arrived, had returned to his own apartment while officers were speaking to the injured man.

Officers noticed him in the window with what appeared to be a gun.

They called him out, and when he exited the building, he had a knife in a sheath on his hip.

When one of the officers ordered him to put his hands up, Rousseau refused and took the knife out of the sheath, saying "you want the knife?"

He then threw it overhand at the officer.

The officers "ultimately used Tasers to gain control of him,"  Hagan said.

When Rousseau was placed in a cruiser he was "belligerent and yelling that he was not going to go to jail."

At the request of defence counsel Ken Walker, the judge ordered a pre-sentence report.

Sentencing will take place Nov. 6.