WARNING: This story contains graphic details.

A man who attacked a Saint John police officer with a knife last winter has been sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison.

Corey James Clarke, 36, was originally charged with attempted murder in the Feb. 21 stabbing of Const. Jonathan Grenier at the west-side Canadian Tire, but pleaded guilty on Oct. 31 to the lesser charge of aggravated assault and several other charges.

Grenier was stabbed three times, in the neck, face and chest, while responding to reports of a man armed with a knife threatening staff and causing damage at the Fairville Boulevard location, the Saint John provincial court heard.

That “routine call became a nightmare,” Grenier said Friday, reading his victim impact statement aloud in the courtroom, before he became too emotional to continue and Crown prosecutor Jill Knee took over.

Grenier entered the store just as Clarke was fleeing two other officers. His bodycam video, which was played for the courtroom last fall, showed Clarke taking downward slashes at him in the foyer area before running outside and being wrestled to the ground by the two officers in pursuit.

One of them, Const. Ryan Woodman, was also stabbed in the scuffle — in the back, in the area of his service vest and belt.

WATCH | ‘We’re almost expected to be bulletproof’:

Grenier said he’s been assaulted and threatened with a “multitude of different weapons” throughout his 10 years of policing with the Saint John Police Force and the RCMP in Portage la Prairie, Man., as well as his seven years of service with the Canadian Armed Forces, which included deployments to Haiti and Afghanistan.

But “the night of Feb. 21 was something completely different.

“Corey Clarke stabbed me in a vital life-threatening area of my upper body without hesitation and complete disregard for human life,” he wrote.

Grenier, a father of two, said his doctor told him the wound to his neck was one millimetre away from his carotid artery, a major blood vessel that provides the brain’s blood supply. If that had been punctured, he could have bled out in seconds, he said.

Const. Jonathan Grenier, of the Saint John Police Force, was stabbed three times by Clarke on Feb. 21. (Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon/CBC)

“I did not have any weapons in my hands and did not pose any threats against him, and yet [Clarke] managed to escalate the situation to the point of leaving me a millimetre away from making the ultimate sacrifice,” wrote Grenier.

The wound to his chest was also very close to a major artery and close to puncturing his lungs, he said.

Grenier said he continues to suffer from nerve damage, neck pain and recurring headaches.

He can’t sleep, has lost interest in activities he once enjoyed, struggles to maintain a social life and has become “hyper vigilant” in crowds, he said, and is seeing a psychologist weekly for treatment.

‘A very serious offence’

Knee recommended a 10-year sentence for the stabbing of Grenier and six months to a year for the assault with a knife on Woodman.

“This was a very serious offence, where there were very serious consequences,” she said.

Knee also recommended the amount of time Clarke must serve before becoming eligible to apply for parole be extended to half his sentence, instead of the usual third.

Defence lawyer David Lutz said Clarke always intended to plead guilty, it was just a matter of to which charge. (Roger Cosman/CBC)

Defence lawyer David Lutz said his client understands the 10-year sentence negotiated with the Crown and six months for the assault on the second officer, but Lutz disagreed with the delayed parole eligibility.

He pointed to Clarke’s pre-sentence report, which said he has been participating in the correctional system’s “integrated correctional program model” while on remand and is faring well.

Clarke is also remorseful, said Lutz, noting he was “using Oxycontin to extreme” at the time of the offence and was so intoxicated when he spoke to him the next morning, “he made absolutely no sense.”

20-year weapons prohibition

Judge Lucie Mathurin said assaulting a police officer in the execution of their duty carries a maximum sentence of 14 years. Given the circumstances of the case, case law and sentencing principles, she accepted the recommended 10-and-a-half-year-sentence.

For three other charges — assaulting the store manager with a knife, mischief under $5,000 for wilfully damaging glass display cases, and resisting two officers in the execution of their duty — Mathurin sentenced Clarke to 15 months, to be served concurrently.

There were a number of people inside the store, including two officers, when Grenier was stabbed, the court heard. (Roger Cosman/CBC)

Three additional charges — assault with a knife charge against a man at a bar earlier that night, a 2017 domestic assault of a woman and failing to attend court for that — Mathurin sentenced Clarke to 10 months of timed served while on remand.

Mathurin also ordered Clarke to provide a DNA sample and prohibited him from possessing any weapons for 20 years.

She did not agree to extend the parole eligibility period, calling it unwarranted. He does not have a lengthy criminal record, is still “somewhat youthful,” and is taking steps toward rehabilitation, she said.

‘I wish I could take it back’

Clarke asked to apologize to Grenier from the prisoner’s box, but the judge instructed him to address the court instead. He said he has reflected on the events of that night “a lot.”

“I wake up every day and I realize that I actually really injured somebody, and I hurt them to the point where it’s really serious. And it scares me to think that that ever happened,” he said.

‘I’m so sorry, I really am. I wish I could take it back. If I could take it back, I’d take it back in a minute.

“There’s nothing that I can do now other than face my consequences.”

Outside the courthouse following the hearing, Grenier told reporters he’s happy to put this chapter behind him.

“I do believe that a lot of people forget that we are human,” he said. “We go through a lot of difficult situations and we’re almost expected to be bulletproof, knife-proof. We have to be emotional-proof against judgment, against everything.

“It’s part of our daily routine that we have to expect that it’s coming and it happens way more [than] most people would think. But to be here and talking about that side that we never talk about, it’s hard.”

While he’s physically almost ready to go back to work, it’s too soon to say when, or if, that will happen, he said. “I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get back in my boots and go forward the same way that I was before.”