Apartments evacuated after bear spray attack, one arrested

Yellowknife’s Sunridge Place apartment block was evacuated just after midnight on Wednesday after bear spray was discharged in the building.

Cory Sarasin, a 31-year-old Yellowknife resident, was arrested and charged following the incident, police said in a statement.

RCMP said a number of residents were exposed to the bear spray and one woman reported difficulty breathing.

Nobody required medical treatment after being examined by emergency medical services, police added, though one woman was discovered unconscious on the first floor.

When RCMP arrived at the building, on 51A Avenue, they described finding some residents already in the parking lot “suffering the effects of bear spray.”

The entrance and the first floor of the building were heavily contaminated with the substance, said police, which made evacuating others from the complex “extremely difficult.”

City firefighters used industrial pressure fans to decontaminate the building.

Sarasin is charged with five separate counts of assault involving a weapon, plus charges of possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose; common nuisance causing injury; three counts of weapon possession contrary to order; and failure to comply with a probation order.