Kelowna man not criminally responsible for setting his own apartment ablaze

A Kelowna man will remain in a Fraser Valley forensic hospital after setting fire to his own apartment three years ago. He caused $200,000 in damage to the building after setting his closet ablaze not once but three times while firefighters doused it in water and police tried arresting him. Brian Edmund Spencer was found not criminally responsible in a Kelowna courtroom on July 15, more than three years after the fire at 1019 Harvey Avenue, according to a recently published BC Supreme Court decision. The building manager awoke to smoke in the building, which appeared to be billowing from Spencer's second-floor apartment around 5 a.m. on June 3, 2021. READ MORE: Kamloops woman who bit another person's child has sentence reduced https://infotel.ca/newsitem/sentence-reduced-for-woman-who-bit-another-persons-child-in-kamloops/it106146 Spencer didn't leave his apartment and the building manager turned to alert other residents so they could evacuate. The Kelowna RCMP Emergency Response Team was called to extract him after he retreated from the two constables that initially responded. More pepper spray and a 40 millimetre "sponge bullet" to the thigh, once police entered the room, got little reaction. He then reached for a knife and an officer fired his taser, but Spencer didn't drop the weapon, according to the decision. The two officers then moved in to pin each arm, with one firing a second sponge bullet at the shoulder of his knife-wielding arm. Again there was little reaction. Fearing death or serious injury as Spencer refused to drop the knife, one of the officers punched Spencer three times in the face. He stopped struggling and they were able to subdue him after. Emergency response team officers estimated they spent at least 30 minutes trying to apprehend him from the time they got to the apartment, according to the decision. Spencer was charged with one count of arson, but it's not the first time being treated for mental health issues after a crime. READ MORE: B.C. Tree Fruits, $58 million in debt, files for creditor protection https://infotel.ca/inwine/bc-fruit-group-50-million-in-debt-to-bank-files-for-creditor-protection/it106158 In 1989, he was implicated in the attempted murder of his father and stepmother. It was then referred to as not guilty by reason of insanity, and he was kept in custody until 1995. He was under supervision in Kelowna for the next 15 years as an outpatient until 2010 when he was returned to the province's forensic psychiatric hospital for an assault with a weapon. Discharged with conditions two years later, he was an out patient until 2015 when he was returned yet again to the hospital for two sexual assaults, according to the decision. He did return once more two years after his 2017 release, but it was due to a "deterioration in his mental state," rather than committing another crime. From 2019 to 2021, he was in the community. On the day of the June 2021 arson, he was also scheduled for a hearing to review his conditions, but he was instead returned to the Fraser Valley forensic hospital. The court heard a significant change to his psychotropic medications may have "unwittingly" accelerated his deteriorating mental state. Spencer was ordered to remain at the forensic hospital and the matter was referred to the BC Review Board to hear the matter, as is typical when an accused is found not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder. To contact a reporter for this story, email Levi Landry mailto:llandry@infonews.ca  or call 250-819-3723 or email the editor mailto:news@infonews.ca . You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom mailto:tips@infonews.ca  and be entered to win a monthly prize draw. We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. SUBSCRIBE to our awesome newsletter here https://infotel.ca/newsletter .