September 14 , 2001

Cop-boppers canned

Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — Two Arviat men were sentenced to jail last week, bringing an end to the community’s two-person crime wave.

Vernon Kritaqliluq, 27, was sentenced to two years in federal prison for his role in the weeklong spree. His partner-in-crime, Luke Pingushat, 20, will go to jail for four months.

The two were both arrested twice in late June and charged with a string of offences, including attacking an RCMP constable with a pipe and a piece of wood.

They were also charged with assault with a weapon, resisting arrest, obstructing a peace officer, causing a disturbance, being drunk in public, uttering threats and violating probation.

They were arrested the first time after attacking a police officer who was investigating a break-and-enter. They struck the officer with a pipe and a piece of wood, and then used the wood to strike a resident who had come to the officer’s aid.

In attempting to arrest the men the second time — at the Grub Box restaurant in downtown Arviat — relatives of one of the men allegedly confronted police, forcing them to call for back-ups from Rankin Inlet.