Ontario man threatens family with hammer in dispute over garbage, police allege

KINGSTON, Ont. — Children fled into the freezing rain without shoes or coats after their father allegedly threatened the family with a hammer in a dispute over garbage, police in Kingston, Ont., allege.

Investigators said the accused, who was living temporarily with his ex-wife and children, became angry on Tuesday evening when his adult daughter confronted him about dumping garbage in the garage.

The man allegedly punched his daughter in the face and grabbed her by the throat before going to the garage and getting a hammer, which he used to smash the daughter’s cellphone and threatened to use it on the next person who spoke, police said Wednesday.

During the altercation the younger children took off outside into the freezing rain, and were followed by the ex-wife and daughter, who gathered them into a car and drove down the road to call police.

“There were teenagers right down to under 10,” police spokesman Const. Cameron Mack said.

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“We had a pretty bad freezing rain storm yesterday that happened in the afternoon and went well into the evening,” Mack said. “The substantial kind that if you left your car parked for five minutes it’s covered in ice.”

Officers found the man standing in the family room next to a smashed coffee table holding the hammer, and dropped it only after a Taser was deployed, Mack said.

“They had to deploy it to get him to drop the hammer,” he said.

A 52-year-old man is charged with assault, mischief, uttering threats to cause death, and possession of a weapon.

The Canadian Press