(Fredericton) The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in New Brunswick arrested two suspects on Friday following a double shooting near Fredericton that left two injured and triggered an emergency alert for armed suspects on the run .
RCMP say Fredericton Police and RCMP officers were dispatched to a mobile home park in Hanwell, N.B., around 4:30 a.m. after gunshots were reported near the boardwalk Leafwood. The area near the Kingswood Golf Course falls under the jurisdiction of both police services.
RCMP had issued an emergency alert Friday morning following a shooting in the middle of the night at a Hanwell and Pine Grove mobile home park, west of Fredericton.
In an “Alert” system message, the RCMP said the suspects, who “would be armed and dangerous,” were last seen in the Oromocto area, about 20 kilometers southeast of Fredericton. .
At 6:52 a.m., the RCMP tweeted that the incident did not meet the criteria for an “Alert” message, broadcast on radio and television stations, as well as on most smartphones.
The “Alert” message had been warning people since Friday morning of the presence of “armed and dangerous suspects” in the greater Fredericton area.
A spokeswoman for the Fredericton Police Force said the two shooting victims were taken to hospital but their lives are not feared. Sonya Gilks also confirmed that a suspect was taken into custody at the scene, and she said the crime was not a random act.
“We don’t believe there is a threat to the public,” Ms.me Gilks Friday morning.
At some point, some residences were evacuated and the Fredericton Police Emergency Response Team was called. Police were concerned that someone had barricaded themselves in a residence, but it turned out to be empty, Ms.me Gilks.
Residents were allowed to return home to the Hanwell and Pine Grove mobile home park around 10:30 a.m. Friday morning.
It remains unclear when police realized one or more suspects drove off.
“As the investigation progressed, we began to put the pieces of the puzzle together,” RCMP Corporal Hans Ouellette said in an interview. It was then that we realized there was this vehicle outside with a suspect or suspects in it, and we really needed to notify the public for their safety. »
At 10:47 a.m., an RCMP “Alert” message went out regarding suspects who had been spotted in the Oromocto area, approximately 20 kilometers southeast of Fredericton, in a blue Honda Civic.
Approximately 90 minutes later, officers located the suspect vehicle in the Longs Creek area west of Oromocto and the second suspect was arrested at the scene.
Another “Alert” message was broadcast at 12:30 p.m., indicating that residents could resume their “normal activities” because the suspect vehicle had been found. And half an hour later, the RCMP shared a message on Twitter indicating that a 22-year-old man was being held. No further details were released.
The use of the Alert Ready system is a sensitive subject for the RCMP. The national police force came under heavy criticism for not using the system on April 18-19, 2020, when a man dressed as an RCMP member killed 22 people in Nova Scotia during a rampage that lasted 13 hours.
The national alert system was not part of its “toolbox” at the time, the RCMP said.