Midlothian crime: Man sparks armed police response after firearm incident in Dalkeith
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A Midlothian man who sparked an armed police response claiming a man had handed him a gun and ordered him to shoot himself has been sentenced.
Brian McCallion called 999 and told the emergency operator he was in possession of the weapon, sending an armed response team racing to his home. Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told 53-year-old McCallion opened his front door to armed officers while clutching the black pistol, but was quickly disarmed and arrested.
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Hide AdProsecutor Ross Price told the court McCallion contacted Police Scotland saying a “gun had been delivered to his address” in Dalkeith on December 17, 2021. The fiscal depute said: “He said the person who delivered it wanted him, the accused, to shoot himself. Constables attended, and indeed firearm constables attended, and made their presence known to the accused and identified themselves as armed police.
“After a short time, the accused opened the door and had a black air pistol in his hand that was pointed towards the ground. At no point was the pistol pointed at anyone.”
Mr Price added the weapon turned out to be an air gun that had “a resemblance to a Beretta” and after being ordered to drop the weapon McCallion had thrown the firearm into his garden. McCallion was arrested and charged and during a police interview he told officers he believed the gun to be real.
McCallion pleaded guilty to a charge of possessing an air weapon without the proper certification when he appeared at the capital court last month and returned to the dock for sentencing on Wednesday, May 17. Sheriff Daniel Kelly placed McCallion on a community payback order consisting of a 24 month supervision order and granted the Crown motion for the forfeiture of the weapon. McCallion pleaded guilty to possessing an air weapon without the proper certificate in Gibraltar Gardens, Dalkeith, on December 17, 2021.