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By Bob Mackin, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Plea Deal

Plea deal after man spotted outside Prince George house with gun

Dec 29, 2024 | 7:28 AM

PRINCE GEORGE — A Prince George man agreed Friday, Dec. 27 to plead guilty to a charge of careless use or storage of a firearm after an incident last March.

Andrew William Soles, 43, had also been charged with unlawfully discharging a firearm.

Provincial Court Judge Martin Nadon agreed to a defence request for a pre-sentence report with a psychiatric component and set Feb. 5, 2025 as the deadline for that report and the next court date for Soles.

Court heard that a scared individual called the Prince George RCMP last March to report a man standing outside his house with a firearm.

RCMP officers arrived and patrolled in the area. They followed tracks in the snow to a residence where a male exited with a firearm in his hand. Officers asked him to lay it on the ground. He left it near a tree and ran away, afraid and agitated.

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Officers eventually found and arrested Soles.

They later entered Soles’s house with a search warrant and found bullet holes in the walls, but court heard the bullets did not exit the house.

In a statement to police, Soles said he had been using drugs and suffering mental health issues.

He had recently switched medications and believed people were trying to break into his home, which caused him to barricade himself inside.

Soles admitted to firing the gun inside the house, but no one else was present. Police seized multiple firearms from the scene.