The Tribune

By PAVEL BAILEY

A MAN was sternly warned in a Magistrate’s Court yesterday for carrying a throwing dagger into a bar last weekend.

Michael Woodside, 31, of Taylor Street, Nassau Village, faced Magistrate Shaka Serville on charges of unlawfully carrying arms and vagrancy.

At Cliffy’s Bar in Alexandria Blvd and Taylor St on April 30, Woodside was arrested for being in possession of a black throwing dagger and being suspected of intending to commit an offence there.

In court yesterday, Woodside pleaded guilty and provided an explanation for carrying the weapon.

The defendant explained that he lived nearby with a friend in a house that belongs to his father’s family and that he went to the bar to buy toilet tissue. He further admitted to being intoxicated when officers arrested him and found the dagger and confiscated it.

When asked by the Magistrate how he came to have such a weapon, Woodside claimed that he had just bought it from a man at a Chinese store to protect himself in his neighborhood.

While Magistrate Serville understood Woodside’s need to protect himself, saying that the defendant’s neighborhood was a “pocket of danger”, he still admonished Woodside over his decision to carry the weapon.

Despite this, Magistrate Serville said the nature of the area was no excuse to carry arms and told the defendant that having a dagger is just as illegal as carrying a gun.

However, because of Woodside’s early confession, which the Magistrate commended him for, Magistrate Serville elected to only sternly warn the defendant for the arms charge.

The prosecution followed that by withdrawing the vagrancy charge and Woodside’s case was fully discharged.