A man charged with allegedly shooting at RCMP officers during a Victoria Day standoff in Chilliwack made his first court appearance Wednesday (May 24), and it was a strange one.
Daniel Hackl, 29, was scheduled for a bail hearing before provincial judge Kristen Mundstock. In custody at the Chilliwack Law Courts, sheriffs had a tough time coaxing him out of his cell and into the video room. When the hearing began, Mundstock asked him to identify himself and he would not. When the judge asked twice if he was Daniel Hackl, his only reply was “I have no name.”
Defence lawyer Ondine Snowden couldn’t verify his identity, having only talked to him on a telephone, and he didn’t have any ID on him when he was arrested. Snowden told the court that she was directed by the voice on the telephone to get a one-week adjournment so her client could “consider his position.”
When Mundstock asked Hackl what he wanted to do, he didn’t say a word and the judge adjourned the matter to May 30 at 10 a.m. by video.
Hackl faces one count of discharging a firearm with intent to wound or disfigure after the incident Monday night (May 22). At 2:15 p.m. on Monday when Mounties were called to a home on the corner of Queen Street and Knight Road to a report of a distraught man with access to several firearms. Police were on the scene most of the afternoon until about 7:45 p.m. when the incident escalated. That’s when neighbours say they heard gunshots, and police say shots were fired at them.
This led to residents in more than a dozen homes being told to shelter in place and stay away from exterior walls. Other residents were not allowed to return home as the stretch of Knight Road from Chilliwack River Road to the Southern Rail crossing was blocked off by police.
Hackl was arrested approximately 10 hours later and the house he was in went up in flames around midnight, with no explanation yet about what caused the fire. Firefighters were back on the scene before 9 a.m. Tuesday dousing hot spots, and they reportedly found shell casings at the scene.
– With files from Paul Henderson and Jenna Hauck
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eric.welsh@theprogress.com
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The house where Daniel Hackl allegedly engaged in an hours-long standoff with RCMP on Victoria Day burned to the ground the same night he was arrested. The cause of the fire has yet to be explained, but Chilliwack Fire Department crews returned to Knight Road and Queen Street to douse hot spots on Tuesday, May 23, 2023. (Jenna Hauck/ Chilliwack Progress)
The house where Daniel Hackl allegedly engaged in an hours-long standoff with RCMP on Victoria Day burned to the ground the same night he was arrested. The cause of the fire has yet to be explained, but Chilliwack Fire Department crews returned to Knight Road and Queen Street to douse hot spots on Tuesday, May 23, 2023. (Jenna Hauck/ Chilliwack Progress)
The house where Daniel Hackl allegedly engaged in an hours-long standoff with RCMP on Victoria Day burned to the ground the same night he was arrested. The cause of the fire has yet to be explained, but Chilliwack Fire Department crews returned to Knight Road and Queen Street to douse hot spots on Tuesday, May 23, 2023. (Jenna Hauck/ Chilliwack Progress)
The house where Daniel Hackl allegedly engaged in an hours-long standoff with RCMP on Victoria Day burned to the ground the same night he was arrested. The cause of the fire has yet to be explained, but Chilliwack Fire Department crews returned to Knight Road and Queen Street to douse hot spots on Tuesday, May 23, 2023. (Jenna Hauck/ Chilliwack Progress)
The house where Daniel Hackl allegedly engaged in an hours-long standoff with RCMP on Victoria Day burned to the ground the same night he was arrested. The cause of the fire has yet to be explained, but Chilliwack Fire Department crews returned to Knight Road and Queen Street to douse hot spots on Tuesday, May 23, 2023. (Jenna Hauck/ Chilliwack Progress)
