The man at the centre of a downtown shootout with Saskatoon police has been found guilty of assault with a weapon and four other gun-related charges.

Mike Arcand, 35, faced five charges including attempted murder of a police officer, discharging a firearm with intent to wound, maim, disfigure or endanger the life of another, intentionally discharging a firearm for a purpose dangerous to the public and use of a firearm while committing an indictable offence.

In his decision, Justice J.D. Kalmakoff said the evidence presented over the two-week trial left reasonable doubt about Arcand’s intention to fire his homemade shotgun at Sgt. Grant Linklater of the Saskatoon Police Service.

“While I am satisfied that Mr. Arcand did intentionally fire his gun, I am left with a reasonable doubt that he meant to kill Sgt. Linklater,” Kalmakoff said.

“It’s apparent from the video Mr. Arcand had poor control of the barrel. He did not have the gun trained at Linklater. There’s no evidence of past animosity. There were no statements of any kind from Mr. Arcand.”

Kalmakoff did find Arcand’s course of action and behaviour supported a guilty verdict of assault with a weapon.

The incident happened during the day of Sept. 27, 2017 on Fourth Avenue South.

The defence had argued Arcand was under the influence of cocaine and crystal meth at the time of the incident and was extremely paranoid and not thinking straight during the shootout with police. The defence argued Arcand’s homemade gun fired accidentally when he was being hit with non-lethal bean bag rounds and Tasers.

The Crown had argued Arcand’s poor decisions that day put the public and police at risk and all Arcand needed to do to avoid this was to heed to police and drop his weapon.

Crown prosecutor Todd Wellsch told reporters outside Court of Queen’s Bench he wasn’t overly surprised with the not-guilty decision on attempted murder. It’s one of the most difficult charges to prove in the Criminal Code because the Crown has to prove specific intent to kill a specific person, he said.

“Certainly he had some intent, but because there was doubt to the specific intent to kill, (the judge) had to find him not guilty of attempted murder,” Wellsch said.

Sentencing is set for April; the minimum sentence for discharging a firearm with intent to wound is four years and Wellsch said the Crown will seek a sentence in excess of that.