Man pleads guilty to foiled Kamloops armed robbery

A Kamloops man will wait months to hear his sentence after admitting to an armed robbery last summer.

James Robert Levi Black, born in 1995, pleaded guilty to the armed robbery today after he carried an unloaded shotgun into a Tranquille Road gas station in August.

Around 8:30 p.m., Aug. 18, Black walked into the store with a medical mask on his face, pointing the shotgun at a clerk.

Surveillance footage shows two bystanders walk up behind Black and wrestle the shotgun away from him, which they later learned was unloaded. The two men held Black until Kamloops RCMP showed up to arrest him.

He faced seven criminal charges, including armed robbery, pointing a firearm and resisting a peace officer.

Black appeared in Kamloops provincial court today, March 7, and pleaded guilty to the one armed robbery charge, with the remaining six counts expected to be dropped, Crown prosecutor Katie Bouchard told the court.

He also pleaded guilty to assaulting two women in a separate charge, which happened in December 2021, months before his foiled robbery attempt.

Black is currently on bail and the court is awaiting pre-sentence reports, including a psychiatric assessment, before he's sentenced this summer.

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