RCMP in the NWT say an hours-long operation at a hotel in Hay River ended on Thursday with the discovery that the room in question was unoccupied.
Even so, it’s not immediately clear whether anyone was apprehended at any other stage of the operation, which some residents said had lasted through much of the night before ending late on Thursday morning.
RCMP said they expected to release more details about the operation, including an explanation of why officers took the action they did, either later on Thursday or on Friday.
Video footage posted online shortly before 7am on Thursday showed an RCMP vehicle outside the town’s Ptarmigan Inn hotel. Through a megaphone, an officer could be heard declaring an individual to be under arrest and instructing them to come to the door with nothing in their hands.
Police said an emergency response team and crisis negotiators had been deployed. No injuries were reported.
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After the incident concluded, an RCMP spokesperson confirmed the report of one witness that the room was empty when police eventually reached it.
One occupant of the hotel, a man who requested anonymity to discuss the matter, told Cabin Radio he had been staying in a room barely any distance from the one that appeared to be the target of the operation.
He said he was not asked by police to leave the room as the incident began.
“I heard noises in the hall, opened my door and was surprised to find myself about 10 feet behind the emergency response team stacked up in the hallway and a seemingly surprised general duty member with a carbine waving me back into my room,” he said by email.
“It was a bit of a surreal experience.”
