RCMP in Fort Smith say the suspect in a shooting that wounded three people this weekend was arrested in the early hours of Sunday.
The shooting occurred just after 2am on Saturday in the parking lot of the town’s Dirty O’Fergie’s bar, a venue for the annual Fireweed Festival, where music had just wrapped up for the night.
A shelter in place order kept residents in their homes and cancelled much of the festival’s Saturday programming, with people only allowed to emerge after 4pm. That evening, an RCMP tactical armoured vehicle and heavy police presence were observed at multiple locations in and around the town.
“At approximately 4:30am on Sunday, August 23, the RCMP arrested the suspect without incident. Charges are forthcoming, pending further investigation,” police stated shortly before noon on Sunday.
Insp James Lai, officer in charge of NWT RCMP’s south district, was quoted as saying the “tireless efforts of our officers and specialized units” had resulted in the arrest.
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The suspect was not identified by RCMP. Generally, police in the territory do not name people they have arrested until charges are formally laid.
On Saturday afternoon, police reported arresting two “persons of interest” regarding the investigation. They, too, have yet to be publicly named and it’s unclear if they have been charged.
There is no update on the condition of the people hurt in the incident.
Anyone present during the broader altercation involving the shooting should come to the Fort Smith detachment between 1pm and 9pm on Monday to speak with an investigator, RCMP said, even if they have already done so.
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At the Fireweed Festival’s Queen Elizabeth Territorial Park site on Sunday, festivalgoers were trying to put the memory of Saturday’s lockdown and trauma behind them.
Hundreds of people were already in attendance just before noon, with live music – The Straydogs’ cover of Stevie Wonder’s Superstition – belting out across the wooded lot that forms the park’s core.
Events are due to continue until 7pm as organizers and attendees try to make up for lost time.
“We just believe in this so much,” organizer Jolene Bourque had said of the festival and broader community the previous evening.
“We know what the North is capable of, what our community and the region are capable of, and the talent we have to help showcase.”
