Potential active shooter | End of confinement at Collège Lionel-Groulx

After nearly four hours of confinement on Friday, students and staff at Lionel-Groulx College in Sainte-Thérèse can leave their premises. The Régie intermunicipale de police Thérèse-De Blainville (RIPTB) indicates at 5:45 p.m. that “the places and people have been secured, that no criminal act has been committed at Lionel-Groulx College in the last hours” and that there are “no injuries and no arrests”.

A call was made earlier around 1:35 p.m. to the Régie de police Thérèse-De Blainville (RIPTB) reporting the presence of “a possibly armed individual” near Lionel-Grouxl College, authorities said.

At the request of the police, the Cégep confined itself. A potential active shooter alert was sent to students and staff shortly after 2 p.m., the school confirmed to The Press.

“All persons present at the College must confine themselves inside their premises until further notice. If you are on the grounds outside of the College, you must leave immediately,” the alert reads.

Zachary Frappier, a student at Lionel-Groulx College, managed to evacuate the Cégep after the alert and immediately took refuge in the Sainte-Thérèse Library with his friends to keep warm. “At first, we were all worried because we didn’t know what was really going on. As you understood there was less risk, the stress went down,” he admitted.

When The Press approached the young man, he had been waiting for his brother, locked up in the cegep, for more than three hours. ” He is fine. He is with another of his friends [dans un local]. They put offices in front to be sure, ”he said.

A video has circulated showing a man potentially equipped with what looks like a long gun near the college. A police officer on site was able to confirm to The Press that his service had also received the video.

In a press scrum, the RIPTB indicated that it had received a call around 5 p.m. concerning a “suspicious-looking” individual who was circulating in the Lionel-Groulx College sector.

“The first information that reached us was to the effect that he could possibly be armed. You will understand that, in the circumstances, no chance was taken,” responded Chief Inspector Luc Larocque.

Police are still looking for the individual on the video. “I want to clarify that we have no information that the suspect would have entered the college,” said Mr. Larocque.

A few dozen students, parents and teachers were gathered in front of the college around 2:30 p.m., noted The Press on the spot. In the early evening, more than a hundred people were still barricaded inside the college. A group of about fifteen elderly people who did aquafitness was also confined.

A dozen police vehicles and ambulances were deployed around the establishment. In the afternoon, several heavily armed agents began to inspect the perimeter of the college with assault rifles. A police officer was also seen inside the establishment, in order to secure the premises.

“It’s not a practice”

The situation remained calm in the CEGEP two hours after the start of confinement, according to Rémi Tremblay, an 18-year-old student still locked in his visual art class with 16 other students.

“It’s going very well, it’s calm and our teacher has kept his cool,” he said in a text message sent to The Press at 3:45 p.m.

A white code had been launched on the intercom at the start of the afternoon, ordering students and teachers to confine themselves or to evacuate the building at nearby emergency exits.

Sandra, a mother, received a message from her daughter around 1:50 p.m. “She said, ‘Mom, there is a white code, we are confined and it is not a practice'”. About 20 students are hidden in her daughter’s classroom, she says.

A Code White is triggered when an individual demonstrates aggressive, threatening or violent behavior that could pose risks to their own safety or that of others.

“My sister is confined to an office in silence. They must get to safety and stay in the dark. We managed to get out, ”said Sabrina Dufresne, 17, outside CEGEP. Several students and teachers evacuated the establishment after the first alert.

According to the president of the teachers’ union at Lionel-Groulx College, Denis Paquin, “CEGEPs are not ready to deal with this type of situation, unfortunately.”

This week, the college management reportedly informed its staff that an emergency response plan would be updated after separate events forced the confinement of two CEGEPs last Friday. “The training that teachers have received is starting to date a bit,” lamented Mr. Paquin.