J had a long history of dealing with the police, many of the incidents involved weapons. Shortly before I arrived in Arctic Bay, he showed up at the house of the Constable in the early morning hours, drunk, armed with a knife and a replica handgun. It was, in all probability, an attempt at "suicide by cop" (an all to frequent method, where you point a gun or some other weapon at the police hoping they'll kill you). The member peaked out a window and saw him, and was able to talk to him until he was distracted and then disarm him.
My first dealing with him came early in my tenure here and he had been armed before I arrived. A neighbour, hearing a domestic next door, went in to try and help. J chased him out with a meat cleaver. When I arrived (again I was alone in the community) J wasn't there, but he had struck the kitchen counter with the cleaver so hard that he had snapped the blade from the handle. I got the details from his common-law and J returned home. He was wild, but as we talked his eyes kept darting to the kitchen. When he turned to go to the kitchen I grabbed him and after a bit of a struggle, arrested him and took him away.
Another time, around 5 am, he again showed up at the other members house. I was between partners at that time, but the relief member was in and staying at the House. J told him he had a knife (he apparently didn't) and as there was no phone in the residence, the other member slipped out the back and drove to my house to get me. When I arrived (the other member had gone back into the house from the back door) J was still on the front steps. He seemed calm enough but as soon as I put my hand on his shoulder he tried to punch me and we fought briefly, with him ending up handcuffed in the back of the PC. All the way back to the office, he threated the other member, an inuk, and he was kept in cells for his trouble.
I know I'm missing something, but the next incident I can remember I was again alone in the community. To top things off I'd been working most of the night, and was terribly sick with the flu, and in pain from an inflamed elbow. I was trying to go home to lie in bed when a call came in about J causing problems at a government office. When I got there he was again drunk and wild, threatening people he thought had stolen his marijuana. The office was crowded with people. About two sentences into our conversation it was obvious that discussion was not going to work and the fight was on. In the course of the fight I broke his nose and there was blood everywhere. I got him to the floor but I was so weak by that time that I had to get some bystanders to help me until I could get handcuffs on him and him out to the truck. When I had the nurse come to look after his nose, she wanted to deal with me instead, as by this time I was exhausted and in pain from my elbow and had lain down on the floor to rest.
Despite all of this I actually genuinely like J. Always personable, and friendly, the only times there has been a problem with him (for me) was when he was drinking, which was relatively infrequently thanks to some Court Orders. We got along well, even the day after any of the incidents, when he was usually contrite and repentant.
One night, shortly before I retired I was working with the Corporal who was my replacement here. In a short time span we received several calls. Although the calls had different dramatis personae the common thread that wove them together was J. There were calls of fights, of threats, and of damage to houses, and in everyone J played a part. We were driving around looking for him when another call had come in from one of the teachers, J had just broken his window and was outside jealously rambling on about his common-law. We were close, but by the time we got there J was nowhere to be seen.
As it happened, J's sister-in-law lived next door and I walked over there, thinking that might be where he went. It was. As I approached the house I could hear someone in the porch and my flashlight revealed J at the far end of the porch. When my flashlight beam caught him he instantly told us that he had a knife. Sure enough I could see something metallic in his hand, although I couldn't get a good look at it.
The Corporal drew her sidearm and I moved to the opposite wall of the porch, creating seperation and two targets. We were far enough, that I took out my pepper spray, and when repeated orders for him to put down the knife were met with defiance, I sprayed him. I continued to tell him to put down the knife and he repeatedly said he wasn't going to. He had one hand at his eyes and the other, holding the knife, waved in front of him.
When it became obvious that he wasn't going to relinquish the knife, even after being blinded by pepper spray, I moved down, as quietly as I could, along the wall of the porch. Then I lunged for his wrist, and took him down to the floor, the knife bouncing off the junk on the floor of the porch. Once he was safely in the truck I went back to and found the knife. Indeed he had held a folding knife, which was closed. He later told me that he had been trying to get us to shoot him.