Firearms related incident resolved safely

Tim Brody - Editor

A firearms related incident on Birchwood Crescent in Sioux Lookout on Oct. 29 was resolved safely.

Police attended the scene that morning after being notified of the situation by a concerned citizen.

Residents of Birchwood Crescent were evacuated as well as residents of Atwood Street between First Avenue North and Third Avenue. Nearby Sioux North High School and Sioux Mountain Public School went into a Secure School state as a precaution on the advice of Sioux Lookout OPP.

“Secure School is a medium response level and means that students and staff remain in their classrooms with the doors locked and all exterior school doors and windows are also locked,” the Keewatin-Patricia District School Board informed.

Sioux Lookout OPP advised at 4:15 p.m. that the situation had been safely resolved, schools had been dismissed, Atwood Street and Birchwood Crescent had reopened to traffic, and evacuated residents were able to return home.

Sioux Lookout OPP Community Mobilization and Safety Officer Andrea DeGagne informed, “It was a Mental Health Act related call, so there are no charges at this time.”

“ERT was called in, the Emergency Response Team, to assist with the incident,” she shared, adding, “Lac Seul First Nations policing actually did a really great job of support us while our resources were all tied up. They assisted us in taking care of the police calls throughout the community, so big thanks to them for helping us out.”

She informed, “Evacuations went very smoothly, a big thanks to the community too for understanding the need to keep them safe by leaving their residences.”

“Our schools did an excellent job of keeping their students safe. They held a Secure School protocol all day long for us,” she informed. “A plan was put in place to have dismissal as close to the appropriate time as possible and the individual schools made plans very, very quickly to get the kids out safely and organized. We had two officers at each school to assist.”

“We did have our negotiations team, who were interacting with them (the individual) and they were connected back with health care services at the end of the call, so hopefully they’ve accessed services,” DeGagne further commented.

No further details are being released.