A 53-year-old Wilson Creek woman who fired two pistol shots in her residential neighbourhood has been acquitted of three criminal charges.
Fay Cornish pleaded guilty to a fourth charge of possessing a loaded, restricted firearm. In North Vancouver provincial court Sept. 9, Judge William Rodgers granted Cornish a conditional discharge, which means she will not have a criminal record, and sentenced her to one year's probation.
Cornish was arrested in a dramatic police action around 3 a.m. Feb. 15. Several neighbours on Wilson Road, awakened by the sound of two gunshots and Cornish's frantic screaming, phoned 911. The first RCMP officers on the scene were Const. Danny Koughan and his partner, Const. Kailey Dobbs.
During Cornish's trial, Koughan testified that "due to the severity of the call," he approached on foot carrying a SWAT-style machine gun and found Cornish, barefoot and in her pyjamas, waving a hand gun while she screamed and banged at a neighbour's door.
"I screamed really loudly, 'She's got a gun. Police. Drop the gun'," said Koughan. "As if startled, she spun towards me. The gun was then in a two-handed grip at her belly, pointed at me."
The confrontation lasted only a moment before Cornish dropped the gun, an old eight-chambered revolver manufactured in Germany. Dobbs arrested Cornish, who she testified was "absolutely, utterly hysterical" and so incoherent that "I don't even know if she said any words."
Cornish claimed she had been the victim of a break-in that night and was hysterical with fear. She said the gun belonged to an ex-boyfriend.
Rodgers found her not guilty of three charges: pointing a firearm at a police officer, possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose and mischief. The mischief charge was for a broken window on her neighbour's door, where she was banging and screaming for help.
