Armed, barricaded man arrested after Fort Smith standoff
A man has been arrested after acquiring a weapon and barricading himself inside a Fort Smith home, police said.
In a news release issued on Friday, RCMP said they were called to a complaint regarding “an armed and barricaded adult male in a residence in Fort Smith.”
Police initially said the incident began at around 8pm on Wednesday, October 3. In a correction issued two hours later, RCMP said it actually began in the late afternoon of Thursday, October 4.
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Police said an emergency response team, including negotiators, safely arrested the man – who RCMP have not identified – at around 2:30am on Friday.
In a Facebook post late on Thursday, the Town of Fort Smith suggested some residents were evacuated from their homes by police while events unfolded.
“For the residents that have been evacuated, the RCMP has advised that they will be contacting you when it is safe to return to your homes,” the Town posted at 10pm on Thursday.
Mayor Lynn Napier-Buckley told Cabin Radio: “We are still waiting for more information from the RCMP on status. There was an evacuation in a residential area near downtown last night; it was an RCMP matter.
“We did assist the RCMP to the capacity that we were able to, and did open the rec centre to any residents who were affected.”
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A number of residents reported seeing or hearing an individual with a firearm in the vicinity of Fort Smith’s Catholic church – the area in which an evacuation is believed to have taken place – while the incident was ongoing.
The RCMP news release on Friday made no reference to this, nor did police expressly confirm the presence of a gun.
Police said they would release no further information. The area of the town in which the incident took place was not specified, nor did RCMP say if anyone else had been in the residence at the time.
“This was a single incident and the public is not at risk,” the police statement added. An RCMP investigation is continuing.
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With files from Sarah Pruys.