A former University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) student who allegedly threatened to “get a gun and shoot up a classroom” also made a list of 10 historic mass shootings across North America.
That’s according to evidence presented in Chilliwack court Monday during a Crown application to revoke bail for Brian Daniel Morrison who faces one count of uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm after an incident at around 6:30 a.m. on April 11.
“Mr. Morrison doesn’t seem like a bad man,” Crown counsel Henry Waldock told the court adding, however, that he seems “focused” on an alleged incident in the past.
“He seems like a person who might be prepared to get a gun and shoot people.”
“No,” Morrison declared from the prisoner’s box in courtroom 204.
But despite the very serious threat to the school, and the assault and mischief charges he faces for behaviour caught on video at The Progress office in December, Judge Robert Browning released the 36-year-old on a $2,000 no-deposit bail with a number of conditions.
He is forbidden to come within 100 metres of any UFV campus or The Chilliwack Progress office, and has a no-contact order with a list of about half a dozen people. He is also ordered to report at the probation office daily.
Morrison’s charge relates to a phone call he allegedly made to a crisis line on April 11 where he told the person on the line that he was harassed several years ago in a UFV class, and “if he did not get an apology he would get a gun and shoot up a classroom.”
It was around 6:30 a.m. that day when Chilliwack RCMP received the report of the threat to the UFV campus at Canada Education Park. The Lower Mainland District Emergency Response Team (ERT) arrived at the school and secured the campus perimeter.
Morrison was quickly identified as a suspect and he was arrested without incident at his Cook Avenue apartment that day. He had no weapons.
• READ MORE: Former student allegedly calls in threat to Chilliwack UFV campus
Waldock told the court that RCMP found no weapons at his home, but they did find information about mass shootings in various communities from the Orlando nightclub shooting in June 2016 to the Montreal massacre at École Polytechnique massacre on Dec. 6, 1989.
Waldock said Morrison said he had that information about events that cause him great distress.
The concern, Waldock explained, “is that people who do these school shootings often research school shootings.”
“He has a longstanding anger with this school,” Waldock said.
In 2014, he was convicted of one count of uttering threats to burn, destroy or damage and one of mischief after security footage allegedly caught him put crumpled newspaper in the door handles of the downtown UFV building (the old Bank of Montreal at Five Corners) and then light it on fire.
• READ MORE: Former UFV student alleged to have threatened teachers, vandalized Five Corners campus
When the alleged threat came in last week, Morrison was already on bail for the incident caught on smartphone video at The Progress office on Dec. 13, 2017.
The man, who suffers from szichoaffective disorder, had previously visited the newspaper’s office with loud complaints, at least once throwing a bundle of newspapers at the circulation manager. His angry visits to the paper usually stem from news items that mention UFV.
But it was on Dec. 13 that witnesses report he seemed more agitated than normal. In the video, he screams loudly for a considerable time that the newspaper is terrorizing him, he then knocks an iPhone out of someone’s hand and tussles with another person before throwing his groceries on the ground.
Morrison was in court on April 12. At Crown’s request, the judge ordered him remanded in custody until April 16 for a Crown application to have his bail revoked. He was given a psychological assessment in between that found not enough grounds to detain him under the mental health act.
At the end of the hearing on April 16, Browning heard from Morrison’s lawyer who said the man’s mother in Delta was very supportive and might take him. Browning ordered that something involving his mother be arranged overnight, but instead, on April 17, Morrison was granted the bail, allowed to stay in Chilliwack under strict conditions.
“I don’t mean this with any disrespect to Mr. Morrison, but I have concerns that Mr. Morrison is not able to control himself,” Browning said on April 16.
In granting bail on April 17, Browning said if Morrison breaches, he had a message for whatever judge facing him.
“It can be certainly passed on by the Crown that this is a last-chance bail,” he said. “If you breach, you should be detained.”
Morrison is next due in court May 8.
@PeeJayAitch
paul.henderson@theprogress.com
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