Man sentenced for stealing RCMP officer's handgun from

Court heard the RCMP constable travelling through the city left his service revolver in a satchel on the front seat rather than securing it in a lockbox before it was stolen from a Sault hotel parking lot

A Sault man has received an almost three-year time served sentence after admitting to stealing an RCMP semi-automatic service pistol from a parked unmarked vehicle while the officer was inside eating breakfast. Waasmo Bradford, 29, originally faced 24 charges in relation to an incident on Aug. 7, 2024, where he and another man broke into a vehicle parked at the Holiday Inn Express on Bay Street — stealing a black satchel containing a Smith and Wesson 9mm RCMP service pistol. On Thursday, Bradford pleaded guilty to five of those charges, including possession of a prohibited firearm, break and enter a vehicle, as well as three firearm possession charges.

The other man was not identified in court. Justice Michael Varpio said it's unclear if Bradford knew the bag he was stealing contained a firearm and ammunition. “There’s no doubt in my mind once he opened it he knew what he had,” Varpio said.

He noted that many in the community, himself included, have had break-ins happen to their vehicles. Bradford may not have intended the theft to be a serious crime, said Varpio, but it quickly became serious based on the firearm and ammunition that was found in the bag. “When you take something that dangerous it’s a whole other ballgame,” he said.

The 9mm Smith and Wesson handgun was a service firearm belonging to RCMP Cpl. Daniel Cassidy, a veteran officer who was travelling between Orillia and Michipicoten First Nation, staying overnight at the Holiday Inn Express in the Sault. Surveillance video showed Cassidy placing a suitcase in the trunk and a black satchel into the front passenger side of the parked vehicle at 6:30 a.m. that morning, before the officer returned to the hotel for breakfast.

Among the contents of the satchel were the handgun, three magazines and a total of 45 9mm rounds. Court documents show the unmarked police vehicle was equipped with a lock box intended for firearms in the trunk, but Cassidy did not use it — instead placing the satchel with on the front passenger seat. Cassidy testified during a preliminary hearing that he believed he had locked the car door before returning to the hotel after dropping off the bag.

Just five minutes later, the video showed two masked men checking unlocked vehicles in the parking lot of the hotel. At 6:38 a.m. the man later identified as Bradford was seen taking the black satchel before the pair began walking toward Queen Street East. He was seen on surveillance video walking away with the bag slung over his shoulder.

A Sault Police officer who reviewed the surveillance footage testified during the preliminary hearing that, in their opinion, the front door of the unmarked police vehicle was left open by Cassidy when he returned to the hotel. The video showed Cassidy retuning to his vehicle carrying what appeared to be two cups of coffee, before he drove away. About three hours later, Cassidy arrived at Michipicoten First Nation and noticed the bag with his service handgun was not in the vehicle.

Cassidy got dressed in his red serge uniform and participated in an annual treaty annuity payment event before making the trip back to Sault Ste. Marie. He did not call ahead to the hotel or to the Sault Police during the hours-long trip back.

He returned to the hotel at about 5 p.m. and searched his room. After about 15 minutes of fruitless searching, Cassidy called the Sault Police Service — more than 11 hours after the firearm was taken. Sault police began a multi-officer search effort, which included review of surveillance footage at the hotel and other nearby locations and executing an arrest and search warrant.

Bradford was eventually identified from a nearby store surveillance video that showed him unmasked and, on the following morning, Aug. 8, 2024, a search warrant was executed at an address on Cathcart Street. Children were present at the address when police arrived and Bradford fled through the back door. The police canine unit was used and Bradford was arrested a short time later.

The handgun was recovered near the back door of the address, loaded with 9mm ammunition. In court on Thursday, Bradford’s defence lawyer Eric McCooeye conceded that his client took the bag. McCooeye said Gladue factors for his client were identified in a report, including generational trauma from his grandparents’ experiences in the residential school system.

He also said in the 701 days his client spent incarcerated, Bradford was often triple bunked or on full lockdown and he was stabbed in the face, spending a week in hospital McCooeye said Bradford has been attending the programs that have been available to him and had arranged a bed at the Northway Wellness Centre upon his release. “He’s motivated to get out of the life,” McCooeye said. The remaining 19 charges against Bradford were withdrawn by the Crown after the plea was entered.

Those charges included multiple counts of careless storage of a firearm. Varpio accepted the joint submission for sentencing from the Crown and defence — that Bradford receive time served of 701 days, plus one day and 18 months of probation. When including the one-and-a-half-times credit for pre-sentence custody, that amounts to a sentence of 1,052 days — a few months shy of three years.

Bradford must also submit to a DNA order and is prohibited from possessing weapons, as defined by the Criminal Code of Canada. In his decision, Varpio noted the seriousness of the offence is reflected in the sentence. ”This sentence sends a message to the community that you cannot be in possession of a loaded handgun because the dangers are so high that even on a plea you are going to be looking at years of incarceration,” he said.

When Varpio asked Bradford if he would like to address the court, he said he would like to apologize to the City of Sault Ste. Marie, law enforcement and to the courts for his reckless behaviour and his addictions. ”I am trying to make the change to turn over a new leaf.

The last four years of me doing this crime and bad choices has taken a heavy toll on me and others,” Bradford said. In 2019, the Saskatoon Police Service charged an RCMP officer whose service firearm was stolen from an unmarked car. SooToday asked the Sault Ste.

Marie Police Service about the department's decision to not charge Cassidy for unsafe storage of a firearm. "Each investigation is unique and decisions regarding criminal charges are made following a thorough review of the evidence," said Sault Police spokesperson Lincoln Louttit, in an email. "In this case, investigators reviewed the circumstances and laid the charges they determined were supported by the evidence.

We are not able to provide further detail regarding the legal analysis or investigative considerations that informed decisions concerning any person who was not charged." Asked why Sault Police did not disclose in the original news release that the weapon was an RCMP service firearm, Louttit said the following: "The firearm was described publicly based on the information considered relevant to advising the community about the accused’s alleged actions and the resulting charges in the interest of public safety." The RCMP has not yet responded to calls for comment.

Jen Magnus is a former Calgary Police Service officer and now an assistant professor in policing and public safety at Wilfrid Laurier University. She said the outcome of a police firearm falling into the wrong hands could have been a lot worse. Magnus said she doesn't want to judge the officer for his actions because she doesn't know what he was going through at the time, but acknowledged the risk posed to the community by having a restricted firearm in the wrong hands.

"It was a really bad mistake and I'm sure this officer is embarrassed over it," said Magnus. "The fact that they recovered it is great, but they might not have." Magnus said safe storage of firearms is a standard that every Canadian is held to.

"Being a police officer doesn't mean that you can ignore those safe storage policy and processes," she said. "Early on in my career, I was taught in recruit training how to safely handle your firearm and you had to display that you understood that before you were to pass your firearms training."