Psychiatric report ordered for accused in vet clinic incident

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This article was published 14/12/2023 (692 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A man arrested for a violent incident that sent veterinary clinic employees scrambling for safety will undergo a psychiatric assessment to determine whether he should be found not criminally responsible.

William Mini, of Brandon, has been in custody since his arrest Nov. 16. The 27-year-old has been charged with three counts of assault with a weapon and one count each of assaulting a police officer, resisting a police officer and mischief under $5,000.

Lawyer Greg Sacks, appearing on Mini’s behalf, requested the forensic report at a hearing before provincial court Judge Robert Heinrichs on Thursday afternoon.

A finding of not criminally responsible requires that an accused was suffering from a mental disorder and did not know what they were doing was wrong and did not appreciate the consequences of their actions.

Court records show Mini has a history of mental health and substance abuse issues.

In 2016, Mini, then 19, was sentenced to seven years in prison after he set two fires in his Brandon suite and stabbed a responding police officer seven times.

Court heard Mini had been off his medication, drinking and doing drugs on Nov. 30, 2015, when he became angry with staff at a Youth for Christ building where he was living at the time.

Mini set the fires and left the building without warning anyone. Building sprinklers extinguished the fires, and no one was hurt.

Brandon Police Service Const. Marc DeDecker caught up to Mini near Brandon University and was in the process of arresting him when Mini stabbed him with a paring knife seven times. DeDecker, who was stabbed twice in the torso through his protective vest and five times in his upper leg — received stitches for his injuries and was off work for six weeks.

In the Winnipeg incident last month, Mini is accused of bursting into the Animal Hospital of Manitoba at 995 Main St. shortly before 10 a.m. and threatening several staff members with a knife.

A client who was there at the time told the Free Press she was in an examination room when she heard a man outside the room “smashing things.”

“One of the people working said they were going to call the police… she yelled she couldn’t stay on the phone because he was coming after her,” the woman said. “It was very terrifying — I really thought I was going to die there, because all I knew was there was a guy with a knife on the other side of the door.”

Four women working in the office ran to safety, locking themselves in separate rooms.

Police arrived to find the front door locked and a male suspect inside harming himself with a knife. When officers forced their way inside the clinic, the man sprayed a fire extinguisher at them.

Police used pepper spray and shocked the man with a Taser before taking him into custody.

Mini’s next court date is scheduled for Jan. 11.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca