A man who threatened customers at an Abbotsford fast-food restaurant in 2023 has received a conditional discharge and one year of probation.
Jacob Steven Froese, 22, was sentenced Jan. 31 in Abbotsford provincial court after pleading guilty to two counts of uttering threats to cause bodily harm and one count of uttering threats.
Charges of causing a disturbance, mischief and resisting a peace officer were stayed at sentencing.
The incident took place March 10, 2023 in the attached Tim Hortons and Wendy’s restaurants in the Fraser Valley Auto Mall, located off Mt. Lehman Road in west Abbotsford.
Police reported at that time that they were called to the location just before 9 a.m. because a man was throwing chairs inside the restaurant, smashing a table and threatening customers.
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Police said some of the threats involved using a gun. When staff asked the man to leave, he played loud music and kicked a self-serve kiosk and the exit doors.
He also made a series of racial slurs to staff, police said. There were about 30 customers in the restaurant at the time.
Police who arrived on scene saw the man leaving the restaurant and, as they approached him to make an arrest, he ran away.
Two officers chased the man and arrested him a short distance away. They confirmed that he did not have a gun on him.
Froese was subsequently charged with seven offences, but a charge of inciting hatred was later dropped.
Also at sentencing, Froese received one year of probation for charges of assaulting a peace officer and theft under $5,000 on Jan. 31, 2023 and for breaching his release order on April 22, 2023.
