A man who kicked a Kamloops Mountie in the face repeatedly in a “horrific” attack, causing the constable to lose consciousness, has been ordered to spend more than two years in prison.
Mason Jack Bischoff, 31, pleaded guilty Thursday in Kamloops provincial court to 10 charges stemming from four separate incidents dating back to the summer of 2020.
Bischoff was sentenced to 29 months in jail, the bulk of it — 22 months — for an attack he levelled on a Kamloops RCMP officer on April 22, 2021.
On that day, court heard, Mounties were called to an address in Riverdale Trailer Court, near the north end of the Overlanders Bridge, for a report of a suspicious vehicle parked in a driveway.
Crown prosecutor Sheron O’Connor said the first Mountie to arrive at the scene determined the vehicle did not belong to Bischoff. The officer then told Bischoff he was being detained.
“He grabbed him by the left arm to lead him out of the vehicle and attempt to put handcuffs on him when he took off running eastbound from that location,” O’Connor said.
Another officer chased Bischoff, O’Connor told court, “through neighbouring properties, over shrubs and tall bushes,” eventually bringing him to the ground, where a violent struggle ensued.
During the struggle, Bischoff ripped the Mountie’s radio from his vest and kicked him “multiple times in the right side of his jaw.”
Backup arrived and Bischoff was restrained. He suffered broken ribs during the arrest.
The injured Mountie was concussed but had no broken bones. Court heard he lost consciousness briefly at the scene and was off work for a week following the assault. After that, he spent a month on desk duty.
O’Connor said the officer is still feeling the effects of the attack.
“He said his jaw was sore for a few weeks,” she said.
“He felt tingling, like pins and needles, in that jaw. He said he still has issues with it — he cannot open his mouth straight and his jaw doesn’t line up properly.”
Bischoff, an electrician by trade, grew up in the Scotch Creek area. Court heard he has been struggling in recent years with an addiction to crystal meth.
“I’m really sorry for the stuff that happened to the police officer,” he said in court.
“I didn’t mean to do any of that. I’m sorry.”
The other offences for which Bischoff was sentenced on Thursday were much less serious — in the summer of 2020, he gave police a friend’s name after he was pulled over in Salmon Arm in a vehicle that did not belong to him; in November of 2020 he stole a sedan from a locked ICBC compound in Vernon; and, in January of 2021, he failed to report to his probation officer in Kamloops.
In addition to the jail time, Kamloops provincial court Judge Stella Frame ordered Bischoff submit a sample of his DNA to a national criminal database and prohibited him from possessing firearms for life.
“It is a serious charge and they were serious injuries,” she said.
“The police officer continues to suffer ongoing harm from the assault, and it was in circumstances which were fairly reprehensible. This was not a minor assault — this was surely horrific behaviour.”
Once he’s given credit for time served, Bischoff will have 20 months left to serve.
