Fire alarm, bloody figure prompted standoff
Significant police presence and cordon on York Street on Friday afternoon were short-lived
A brief police standoff in downtown Fredericton arose after a fire alarm at an apartment building followed by a bloody man shattering a window, witnesses say.
A major police presence descended on York Street in Fredericton, with armed officers surrounding the Hartt Shoe Factory building.
Members of the Fredericton Police Force cordoned off the block around the former shoe factory shortly before 3:30 p.m. Friday.
At least one officer on the street had a long gun pointed at an elevated location in the building.
Fredericton Fire Department personnel and vehicles are also on the scene, as were RCMP officers, including a canine unit.
It appeared that every Fredericton police officer on duty Friday afternoon responded to the building.
However, at about 4 p.m., the situation appeared to have been resolved, with most emergency responders leaving the scene and yellow tape being removed.
Police spokesperson Sonya Gilks issued a statement at about 4:45 p.m. shedding some light on the unusual events.
“At approximately 3:45 p.m., members of Fredericton dire and police departments responded to a smoke alarm call in a building on York Street,” she wrote in an email.
“Upon arrival, first responders located a male in distress. Police assumed control of the situation and initiated appropriate safety protocols.”
That male individual was taken into custody, Gilks said.
Furthermore, she said, first responders also dealt with another but unrelated medical incident inside the same building.
“Police cleared the scene at approximately 4:05 p.m.,” Gilks wrote, adding that the investigation into the incident continues. “There is no threat to public safety.”
The city police force’s tactical armoured vehicle arrived on the scene after most of the emergency responders had already withdrawn from the area.
Kristin Wyrwas, a tenant in the Hartt Shoe Factory, which was converted to apartments years ago, confirmed some of those details.
She told the Fredericton Independent that there was a fire alarm shortly before 3 p.m., but it had shut off after a few minutes.
However, it resumed a short time later, she said, and someone reported seeing smoke on the third floor of the building. Firefighters were on the scene quickly, she said, as there’s a fire station less than a block away.
Wyrwas believed there was really a fire, she said, so she grabbed her pet bearded dragon and evacuated, as many other tenants did.
That’s when the situation changed, she said, as a window on the third floor was broken out and she saw a male figure, covered in blood, at that window.
There was a report that he was waving a knife, Wyrwas said.
Megan Moore, who works in a salon in the building, also reported that there was a man covered in blood in the building.
She said she heard the fire alarm, and after the third-floor window was broken, the man was throwing stuff out of it.
Police directed residents away from the building as they dealt with the situation, Wyrwas said.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.
Thank you so much for this. Because I got the notification on my phone, I was able to text my loved ones to tell them to stay away from the area. I really appreciate your reporting.