{"id":748893,"date":"2026-06-20T06:09:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T06:09:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/748893\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T06:09:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T06:09:30","slug":"calgary-man-with-horrific-record-for-violence-who-attacked-bus-driver-gets-4-year-sentence-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/748893\/","title":{"rendered":"Calgary man with &#8216;horrific record for violence&#8217; who attacked bus driver gets 4-year sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">One of two Calgary brothers who assaulted a bus driver in what the Crown described as a \u201csenseless, harmful and appalling\u201d attack was handed a four-year sentence on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Amarjit Grewal was 67 years old when he was attacked by the two brothers in May 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Earlier this year, Curtis Baker Spence, 21, pleaded guilty to robbery and breaching a release condition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">His brother, 23-year-old Darryl Flett, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and a breach. He will be sentenced in August.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A sentencing hearing for Baker Spence took place Friday with prosecutor Greg Piper arguing for a four-and-a-half-year sentence and defence lawyer Gunntas Sidhu asking the judge to consider a three-and-a-half-year term.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Amalgamated Transit Union members rallied around bus driver Amarjit Grewal (centre, wearing long grey sleeves) on June 19, 2026, in Calgary.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/5c91c1aee9fd6299b865378cc22707b9.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>(Mike Symington\/CBC)<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Victim still off work <\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Court heard that Baker Spence and Flett attacked Grewal on his bus in the early morning hours of May 14, 2025, while at a stop in the city\u2019s northeast.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A video of the assault was played in court as part of Baker Spence\u2019s sentencing hearing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He beat Grewal with a baton while Flett used a sharp-edged weapon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Grewal used his hands and arms to shield his face and head from the attack, suffering lasting injuries to his hand. He remains unable to work since the incident.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Court heard that Baker Spence had been released from jail after serving time for crimes of violence just two weeks before his attack on Grewal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A &#8216;horrific record&#8217; <\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Piper described Baker Spence as having a \u201chorrific record for violence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cIt is a miracle, frankly, that the injuries were not worse than they were or even fatal,\u201d said Piper.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Prosecutor Greg Piper described the attack on a Calgary Transit driver as 'senseless, harmful and appalling.'\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781935770_63_default.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>(Meghan Grant\/CBC)<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In his submissions, Sidhu described his client as experiencing an unstable childhood marked by violence, addiction and incarceration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">While not an excuse for committing the violence, Sidhu says it does help explain how his client ended up here.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Baker Spence moved from foster care to jail to homeless shelters and back to jail.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cHe cannot identify a place where he felt safe as a child,\u201d said Sidhu.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cFew people would have emerged unscathed from childhood like his.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In the end, Justice Frederick Fisher split the difference, ordering a four-year prison term. With credit for the time he\u2019s spent pending Friday\u2019s hearing, Baker Spence has 28 months left behind bars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of two Calgary brothers who assaulted a bus driver in what the Crown described as a \u201csenseless,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":748894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[267883,267885,49,2798,48,267884,267886,229603,267887,267888],"class_list":["post-748893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-amarjit-grewal","tag-baker-spence","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-canada","tag-curtis-baker-spence","tag-darryl-flett","tag-greg-piper","tag-gunntas-sidhu","tag-sentencing-hearing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/748894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}