Alleged Oxycontin robber jumped from balcony with child

Okotoks: Geoffrey Hunter pleaded guilty to criminal negligence

An Okotoks man charged with holding up several local pharmacies in a desperate search for the drug Oxycontin is also believed to have jumped from a second story balcony with his baby in his arms while possibly high.

In October Geoffrey Mark Hunter, 28 of Okotoks, pleaded guilty to criminal negligence causing bodily harm.

Okotoks RCMP officers were called to an apartment in July where a woman said her common-law husband assaulted her and jumped off the balcony with his 16-month-old baby.

Police found the man and the baby in a car about 10 blocks away from his home. The car was not moving at the time and the baby was unsecured in the vehicle.

Sgt. Ian Shardlow said the baby was injured in the fall.

“He had a bump and a large cut as a result of the bump on his head,” said Shardlow.

The man was drunk and may have been on drugs as well, Shardlow added.

“He was highly intoxicated and possibly high,” he said.

Since then Hunter has been charged with five counts of armed robbery, five counts of possession of a dangerous weapon, five counts of wearing a disguise while committing an indictable offense and one count of uttering a threat.

The charges are in connection to a number of robberies across southern Alberta, including two Okotoks pharmacies, one in High River, one in Strathmore and one in Drayton Valley.

A masked man was stopped by a customer shopping at the Okotoks Sobeys in January and held, with the help of the store’s owner, until police arrived. He was subsequently charged with robberies at four other stores and the Sobeys hold-up.

Hunter will set a date to be sentenced for his charges of negligence causing bodily harm on Feb. 21. He is being held in custody on his robbery charges, but he has not yet entered a plea to those charges.