Jail for drunk who pointed brother’s toy gun at police

A MAN who sparked a full-scale alert after pointing a toy gun at police officers has been jailed for two years.

John Bravin waved the gun belonging to his eight-year-old brother when officers were called to his home in Calder Place to deal with a disturbance.

The 22-year-old’s behaviour resulted in the launch of the Lothian and Borders Police armed response unit, Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard.

Bravin pleaded guilty to assaulting constables Graham McKenzie and Nicola Walker by pointing the gun at them and to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner in the house on July 11 this year.

Fiscal depute Isabel Clark said the incident began at about 2am when Bravin’s sister reported he had been “smashing up the house” and she wanted him removed.

The constables found Bravin lying on his brother’s bed, intoxicated, and told him to get up. As he did so, they saw he had a gun in his hand and was pointing it at them.

He also pleaded guilty to threatening the officers with violence and attempting to barricade himself into a room.

Ms Clark said: “The accused had barricaded himself into the room and was shouting that the police officers would get it.”

The officers immediately backed out of the bedroom and shut the door and called for assistance. It was only then they discovered the gun was a toy belonging to his brother.

Ms Clark described the Chinese-made gun as being black with silver stars.

“He said sorry for causing any inconvenience to the armed response unit and for wasting police time,” she added.

Bravin’s behaviour was described as “very odd” by defence agent Sandra Walker. She said: “He has been in custody since July and fully accepted what he had done at an early stage.

“A friend of his died one month before the incident and he and a friend went to visit his grave where they consumed a lot of alcohol. He then went home drunk.

“When his sister called the police, he was asleep in his brother’s room where there were a lot of toys. One of the toys in his room was a black gun with silver stars on it, which was already lying on the bed.

“He can’t explain why he did it but he turned and pointed it at the police.”

When the armed response unit arrived, “he realised how stupid he had been”, she added.

The defence agent said Bravin was suffering from an underlying alcohol problem which stemmed from the illness of his mother.

Sheriff Paul Arthurson said that there was no alternative to a custodial sentence.