A judge has acquitted a “brave” Toronto man of gun charges after accepting a relatively rare “public duty” defence that he grabbed the weapon to prevent a late-night altercation from turning lethal.

Adebowale Adedokun, 33, an event planner and artist manager with ties to rap superstar Drake, was in a downtown Toronto restaurant early May 25, 2015, when his group of friends got into a physical altercation with some young men seated at another table.

During a struggle, one of his friends dropped a loaded gun on the ground where it was “knocked about,” according to the ruling. Adedokun grabbed the firearm, tucked it into the waist of his pants, left the restaurant and put it inside the rented limo, according to evidence presented at a two-day trial. He returned to the restaurant, pulled his friend away from the dust-up and together they headed to the vehicle parked nearby.

A waiter called 911 and reported the incident, licence plate number, and minutes later Toronto police pulled over the limo and conducted a high-risk takedown.

The gun was found beneath the middle row under a seat. Its serial number had been removed and there were no fingerprints on the weapon. Adedokun’s friend pleaded guilty to gun charges.

That left Adedokun facing gun possession charges.

During the trial, Toronto defence lawyer Adam Newman argued Adedokun possessed the gun as part of a “public duty” with the intention of preventing it from being used to harm anybody and did not intend to obstruct the police.

“He thought he was doing the right thing,” Newman told the Star.

Adedokun took the stand and told the judge his initial reaction was to “stand back and not get involved.” But he testified he made a split decision to take the gun and get out so nobody was hurt.

“I didn’t know what to do with it, I was ... in a panic, like now I have a gun on me that’s not mine ... so I put it under the seat,” Adedokun testified, according to an audio recording of the February proceeding.

Adedokun told the judge there was no obvious place to dispose of the weapon so he thought the “safest” place was beneath the vehicle’s seats.

The Crown argued Adedokun was not motivated by any public duty, that rather, he wished to prevent his friend from getting into trouble. And even if he was reacting out of a sense of public duty, the prosecution argued, his failure to turn the gun over to the police or take further steps to keep it from his friend “disentitles” him from relying on the public duty defence.

Superior Court Justice Andras Schreck sided with Newman and found Adedokun not guilty. Accepting the Crown’s submission would undermine the purpose of the public duty defence, Schreck wrote.

“Mr. Adedokun could have stood by and done nothing. No criminal liability would have attached to him had he chosen to do so, even if the struggle for the gun had resulted in the death of either of the individuals fighting or an innocent bystander,” the judge said.

“To convict Mr. Adedokun for his actions, which may well have prevented a senseless death, is to send the message that people who find themselves in his position are better off doing nothing. Such a message does not advance the public good. Mr. Adedokun’s actions were brave, not criminal.”

Newman said it is a novel defence and that it was the first time in 20 years of practising law that he has used it.

One of the reasons for its infrequent use is that there needs to be “an air of reality to it,” the lawyer said.

“An accused person could anytime they’re caught with a gun say ‘oh I just found it, I was going to return it to the police.’ In this case, we knew minute-for-minute what happened inside the restaurant,” because of surveillance video played in court.

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Adedokun declined to be interviewed but praised Newman on his Instagram account as “the best lawyer in the city.”

Adedokun told court he runs Right Time Management, an event planning company that throws parties and concerts and manages artists, including Toronto rapper P Reign, also known as Preme, and “we do some work with Drake too as well.”

His surety was Nessel “Chubbs” Beezer, Drake’s head of security.

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