Photo: Deborah Pfeiffer

A man has been given an 18-month probation order for shooting a shotgun into the air in the "spirit of celebration" in the middle of the night.

Police received a call on Aug. 6 just after midnight to Winnipeg Street from a woman who heard gunshots in a nearby backyard.

An officer attended to the household where the shots were reported to come from, where a man answered the door and told the officer that he had taken a gun away from his friend, who had fired it in the backyard.

His friend, Kenneth Ashe, had returned to his travel trailer at the back of the property, where the resident of the house told the officer he believed Ashe had more guns.

The man convinced Ashe to come out of his trailer when the officer knocked on the door, and Ashe was placed under arrest.

Ashe was reported to be co-operative through the process.

His trailer was then searched, and officers found six firearms in a cabinet and a drawer contained ammunition. Officers also noted that Ashe's licence for keeping weapons was expired.

One witness told officers he jumped out of his bed after hearing two shots, running outside to find Ashe shooting another round into the air.

The witness said Ashe had been disgruntled for a few days, had drunk a lot and was "mad at the world and the government."

He said he had never known Ashe to shoot his guns off like that, and that he was usually responsible with the guns.

Ashe's defence lawyer James Pennington argued that shooting a shotgun into the air was not as dangerous as a handgun, which would have a larger, single bullet come back down, rather than multiple smaller, dispersed pellets.

He added that fireworks were also going off that night for Peach Fest.

Ashe, who had not been employed at the time after losing an oil patch job, has since found employment as an equipment operator.

Pennington said Ashe, who had no criminal record, was also surprised to find that his licence had expired, and summed it up as a case of a forgotten renewal.

Ashe spoke before Judge Gregory Koturbash to tell the court, the shots were "in the spirit of celebration," saying that where he used to live, well outside of the city, he used to fire a gun in the air to celebrate New Year's Eve.

Koturbash reminded Ashe that firing a weapon in the wilderness is not the same as in the city.