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Repeat offender found passed out in vehicle in Peachland, after recent escape from halfway house

Found passed out in vehicle

Police didn't have to chase down a repeat offender who recently escaped from a halfway home in Surrey. Instead, they found him passed out in a vehicle in Peachland Thursday morning.

John Aronson, 35, has a long laundry list of criminal convictions in the Central Okanagan, and his most recent charges stem from an incident that occurred this past July.

But despite having been in and out of custody on a variety of charges over the past several years, and breaching court conditions while out of custody, Justice Steven Wilson granted Aronson's bail in December and he was released to the Surrey halfway home on Jan. 13.

But about two weeks after his release, he cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet and escaped from the halfway home. The Kelowna RCMP issued a warning to the public last week about his escape, describing him as a “violent, high-risk, repeat offender.” Police believed he would return to the Central Okanagan.

Just before noon on Thursday, the West Kelowna RCMP received a report of two people who appeared to be passed out in a vehicle in Peachland. Officers attended the area and recognized one of the individuals as Aronson.

Both Aronson and the female passenger in the vehicle have been arrested. Police did not disclose what the woman was arrested for.

“The officer, along with a member of the public who made the initial report, took a very dangerous individual off our streets and for that we are extremely grateful,” said Const. Mike Della-Paolera, spokesperson for the Kelowna RCMP.

Politicians have recently jumped on Aronson's escape as an example of Canada's so-called “catch-and-release” bail system. Conservative MP for Kelowna-Lake Country Tracy Gray brought up the case in Parliament earlier this week, while Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre posted about the case on Twitter.

In response to Gray's comments, Minister of Justice David Lametti defended the government by noting the bail system must balance an accused's Charter rights, based on a presumption of innocence.

“Nobody out on bail ... should pose a threat to the security of Canadians, that is in fact what the law is,” Lametti said. “We're willing to look at other measures within that law, we're working with the provinces and territories in that regard.”

Aronson is currently facing firearms charges stemming from a July 2022 incident. He was originally facing an armed robbery charge relating to the incident as well, but the Crown stayed that charge in December. At this time, it's not clear if he's facing any additional charges in connection to his escape from the halfway house.

The firearms charges came less than two months after he was released from custody on a prior conviction, which involved him fleeing from police on Sept. 23, 2019 while driving west over the William R. Bennett bridge, and crashing his car into oncoming traffic. He was seriously injured in the crash and spent two months in hospital before being confined to a wheelchair for several months after that.

That crash occurred on the very same day Aronson had been released from custody on a completely separate conviction, which involved him being shot by police and bitten by a police dog during a takedown outside the CIBC near Orchard Park Mall.

During his sentencing on that matter, Aronson told the court: “Obviously what was done was a good eye-opener and I want to be there for my kids except that I was in a bad state of life and I was using. I didn't care what I did. It got control of my life. I'm sorry for what I did and you are not going to see me back in here.”

During his May 2021 sentencing for fleeing from police, Judge Clarke Burnett called Aronson's words “meaningless.”

And when he was denied parole in September 2021, the Parole Board said Aronson had a history of “violent offending, poor supervision history and inconsistent behaviour at [his] current institution.”

Aronson has been well known to police for many years. He had previously been arrested in two “high-risk takedowns” in Rutland, in connection with a violent break and enter in West Kelowna in 2017.

After his first arrest on those charges, he was released on bail and quickly stopped attending court. Police found him and made a second “high-risk takedown."

Despite the RCMP's efforts, the Crown ended up dropping Aronson's seven charges from the 2017 break and enter in November 2018, after the prosecutor determined “the charge assessment standard was no longer met.”

Aronson's record dates back to 2006 in Kelowna, when the then-18-year-old was jailed for 30 days for obstructing an officer and escaping from custody.



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