B.C. man arrested near Burnaby park with loaded handguns, sword, smoke grenade off to prison

A B.C. Supreme Court judge has sentenced a man to four years in prison after he was arrested, heavily armed, outside Burnaby’s Central Park in November 2016.

Jesse Diamond Noel, a 31-year-old originally from Squamish, was arrested on a litany of charges, including unlawful possession of a firearm on Nov. 19.

Burnaby RCMP had set up surveillance in the area after receiving calls of an armed robbery in which the suspect had fled the night before.

Just before 1 a.m., police officers spotted a 1997 Buick parked in the area of Central Park with a licence plate registered under Noel’s name.

The Buick didn’t match the description of the car under which the plates were registered.

Court documents show Noel was reclining in the driver’s seat, with three dogs in the car. When the officers asked him to exit the vehicle, he refused and tried to open the glove box.

Around 20 minutes later, Noel exited the car and sprinted away before the officers tackled and handcuffed him.

Inside the car, they found two loaded handguns, four boxes of ammunition, a sword and a smoke grenade.

Noel was under a 10-year firearms prohibition at the time as a result of a conviction for robbery in 2012.

The judge called his conduct “serious and, quite simply, unacceptable.”