Police responded to a "serious incident" near Southview School on Thursday afternoon.--NEWS PHOTO JEREMY APPEL
jappel@medicinehatnews.com@MHNJeremyAppel
A 32-year-old man has been arrested and charged with nine offences in relation to a “crime spree” across the city Thursday, which included a “serious incident” near Southview School that resulted in a shelter-in-place, police say.
According to a Medicine Hat Police Service news release, the crimes were committed over an 11-hour period before the accused was arrested around 6:30 p.m. in the vicinity of Cocks Way.
The charges had yet to be sworn against the accused by press time, meaning his name cannot be released.
However, police say the suspect is facing two counts of break-and-enter into a residence, as well as individual charges of possessing a weapon dangerous to the public, wearing a disguise in an attempt to commit an indictable offence, theft of a motor vehicle, possessing stolen property under $5,000, possessing methamphetamine, transportation fraud and breach of release order.
The MHPS put out a news release Thursday at 2:47 p.m. telling the public to stay away from 24th Street SE between 21st Avenue and Southview Drive – a block away from Southview School – due to a “serious incident.”
As a result, the school was put into a hold-and-secure around 3:10 p.m., where people were temporarily prevented from leaving or entering the building, but all activity within the school continues as normal.
Medicine Hat School Division superintendent Mark Davidson told the News the hold-and-secure was implemented on the advice of the police.
He said police told the school’s administrators there was an individual in the neighbourhood who was committing vandalism and was armed.
Since this occurred near the end of the school day, Davidson said it complicated busing across the division, since students at other schools were slated to be dropped off in the Southview area.
“We arranged for River Heights and Connaught buses to take their students to Southview so they could be released to their parents there. At Medicine Hat High School, we had staff ride the bus with the driver and make sure they did deliveries at line of sight, so they could see students from door-to-door,” explained Davidson.
“Certainly, there’s concern whenever there’s a report in the media or social media about somebody in the community who’s behaving in a way that’s dangerous or causes fear, but people were very supportive of the efforts of the school and all of the school staff.”
The Major Crimes Unit’s investigation into Thursday’s events is ongoing and more charges could be forthcoming, the news release says.
