Man once accused of killing cat now charged with trying to steal one

A Truro, N.S., man who was accused three years ago of killing a cat was arrested on Wednesday after allegedly trying to steal one from a stranger's back deck.

Stephen Gregory Tynes, 32, was taken into custody after a woman called police at around 7:50 a.m. to say somebody had tried to take the cat.

Truro police Insp. Rob Hearn said patrol cars were in the area and Tynes was arrested shortly afterward. He was released on an undertaking to stay away from the homeowner and will appear in court on May 3 to answer to the charges of theft and violating his probation.

The cat was not harmed, Hearn said.

Previous charges

Tynes pleaded guilty last year to a weapons charge in relation to the possession of an over-capacity cartridge magazine, and was placed on probation on Oct. 26.

In August 2015, Tynes was also charged with making death threats against two people connected to Dalhousie University. Those charges were later dropped in exchange for a peace bond.

As part of the peace bond hearing process, Tynes's psychiatrist testified that she went to police with her concerns because she felt the daughter of a university official was in imminent danger of being harmed.

Tynes told his psychiatrist he thought about shooting up to 20 people and then killing himself.

And in 2014, Tynes was accused of willfully causing the death of a cat in Truro, but the charges were later dismissed.

Chris Hansen of Nova Scotia's Public Prosecution Service has said the Crown didn't take the case to trial because it didn't think police had gathered evidence that would lead to a conviction.