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West Vancouver police seize pellet rifle

Man was using assault rifle look-alike at Ambleside beach
WV police

West Vancouver police officers raced to Ambleside Park Monday evening after receiving a call that a man was walking on the Spirit Trail carrying what appeared to be a partially hidden assault rifle.

The gun was later confirmed to be a pellet gun.

But that wasn’t obvious to the person who called police, said Const. Jeff Palmer, spokesman for the West Vancouver Police Department, who added the gun was a fairly realistic replica of an assault rifle and had been carried with a sweater draped over it.

“It was certainly a concern to the person who called us,” he said.

Police found the gun with a group of West Vancouver residents, including a 44-year-old woman, 49-year-old man and the man’s five-year-old son.

Witnesses said they had been firing pellets at rocks on the beach.

Palmer said police seized the pellet gun.

It’s the second time in a week that West Vancouver police have been called out over pellet guns.

Last week, three teenaged boys were nabbed by police and had their toy guns confiscated after shooting pellet guns at cars near the Hollyburn Country Club. In that instance, at least one of the boys was wearing a mask.

Palmer noted it’s against West Vancouver bylaws to shoot a pellet gun in public.

It’s also not smart to carry a toy gun that could easily be mistaken for a real one, he added. That puts both the person carrying the toy gun and the public at potential risk, he said.

“From 50 or 100 metres back in less-than-perfect lighting, can you tell the difference?”