A one-armed man in Yellowknife has been sent to jail for attacking an RCMP officer with his prosthetic arm earlier this year.

Bobby Kaotalok, 24, was sentenced this week to one year in jail for assaulting a peace officer and mischief in relation to an incident at Stanton Territorial Hospital in July.

Police were called to the hospital by staff who reported finding an intoxicated man sleeping in their staff room.

When officers arrived, the man had locked himself inside a bathroom. After staff unlocked the door, the man challenged the police, Const. Todd Scaplin said.

"I guess he didn't like the fact that he was going to be arrested, so he became combative, started clenching his fists... er, fist, at the member and was swearing, just being belligerent," Scaplin told CBC News on Thursday.

"At one point, he asked, you know, 'What were [you] going to do about it?' sort of thing. The individual has a prosthetic arm, which he took off and swung at one of our members, actually."

The police officer blocked the swing and was not injured.

"It's not an every-day occurence to be hit with a weapon, and certainly not with a weapon of this type," Scaplin said.

Kaotalok was also sentenced for several breaches of court orders.