A Tariff Rant in a Grocery Aisle Ended With Loaded Guns Seized

What happens when a trade war follows you into the grocery store? In southwest Calgary, police say, it sounded like a stranger ranting about tariffs, then a promise to go get a shotgun and use it — made in front of a husband, a wife and a child reaching for groceries. ¹²

That is the allegation at the centre of a case that moved in less than an hour from a supermarket aisle to an armed arrest at a family home, and from political shouting to five criminal charges. Nobody was injured, police say, but officers describe what they walked into as barely contained. ¹¹

It happened Thursday, September 3, 2026, around 12:10 p.m. at the Safeway at 2525 Woodview Drive S.W. in Woodbine, police say. A man shopping with his wife and child was approached by a stranger who began making political comments about Canadian and American tariffs. ^{12 5}

The stranger grew agitated, according to police. He shouted anti-Canadian and pro-American remarks, then threatened to retrieve a shotgun and shoot the other shopper — with the wife and child standing there. Store staff stepped in. The man approached the family a second time before he was escorted out. ^{12 3}

Police say they identified the suspect from witness accounts and tracked him to a home in the 400 block of Woodside Road S.W., in nearby Woodlands, about two kilometres away. As officers arrived they say the 49-year-old was armed with a handgun and they heard a gunshot from inside the residence. ¹²

No one was hurt. No other occupants were present, police say. He was taken into custody about 12:53 p.m. the same day, forty-three minutes after the store confrontation, and investigators then executed a search warrant on the home. ^{12 16}

The seizure was not a single gun left in a drawer. Police list an unloaded .40-calibre pistol, a loaded 12-gauge shotgun, a Glock replica BB gun, and loaded magazines and ammunition. ¹² The shotgun was loaded. The pistol was unloaded. The replica, while not a firearm in law in the same way, matters to how officers have to read risk in the moment. ⁵

The accused is identified in police materials as James Dean Garriock, 49. The spelling is Garriock, though some early reports carried it as Garrick. Police materials control here, and that is the spelling that anchors the file. ¹²

He faces one count of uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm, one count of possession of an unlicensed weapon, one count of discharge of a firearm with intent while being reckless, and two counts of careless storage of a firearm. ¹²

That discharge count needs plain explanation. It is tied to the shot officers say they heard inside the Woodside Road residence as they arrived, not to any shot fired in the store. There is no allegation that a gun was fired in the Safeway. The store allegation is a threat to retrieve a shotgun and shoot the man. ^{12 3}

So said Staff Sgt. Joe Hebert of the Calgary Police Service District 6 General Investigations Unit, in the line every outlet carried after the charges were announced September 9. It is easy to hear that as routine police language. In context it reads as a warning about sequence: a public threat, a private home with loaded guns, officers arriving while a shot is fired inside. ¹¹

Two caveats sit at the centre of the public record and the charges do not resolve them. Police have published no exact wording of the threat. Every account repeats the same police paraphrase — that the man said he would retrieve a shotgun and shoot the other man — without transcript, audio or verbatim witness quote. ^{16 2}

And the tariff dispute was not a fight over a price tag. Police describe it only as political commentary about Canadian and American tariffs that turned into agitated, anti-Canadian and pro-American shouting. There is no claim in the police account that it began over a specific grocery price, product or checkout sticker. It was national trade politics, rehearsed loud enough for a child to hear. ^{12 16}

The file number is CA26402231. Garriock's next court appearance is set for Thursday, September 17, 2026. ¹²