BLASTS UNDER INVESTIGATION
Heart of Sherwood Park locked down
A day after a pair of explosions less than two hours apart rocked a parkade at Strathcona County Community Centre, the heart of Sherwood Park remained on lockdown.
Crime tape, haphazardly strung between trees and street signs along Sherwood Drive near the county hall, along with city barricades and a heavy police presence, barred anyone but RCMP investigators and bomb disposal experts.
Nearby business owners and residents were asking the same question: Just what happened inside the parkade Tuesday night that started with a fire call to 911 and ended in the death of a 21-yearold man?
At a Wednesday afternoon news conference, Mounties at Strathcona County RCMP headquarters released bare-boned details of the previous night’s events.
At 6:15 p.m. Tuesday, as some folks were taking part in their weekly square dancing session at Festival Place and students were making up classes at night school at the nearby Salisbury Composite High School, a fire was reported in the parkade.
There were also reports of an explosion.
When officers arrived they located an injured male in a vehicle in the parkade.
Police at this stage won’t say what those injures were, but RCMP Supt. Dave Kalist said the man’s death was “not related to police interaction.”
The injured man was taken to hospital where he died.
About two hours later, as investigators were trying to piece together what had happened, a second explosion rattled the same parkade.
The cause, origin and motivation for the explosions were unknown.
Residents of the Bedford Seniors Centre were evacuated to nearby St. Theresa school and other neighbouring buildings in the enclave in the city’s southwest were cleared as a precautionary measure.
People like Jim Cochrane and his wife, who were square dancing at Festival Place, were suddenly faced with a police officer carrying a long gun who was sent in to usher them to safety.
“He talked to our director, and then he asked us all to pack up and leave,” he said.
“‘Just go quietly and no panic’ were his words.”
While some in the area reported hearing loud bangs, Cochrane said no one heard anything over the music.
Paige Proskiw, an 18-year-old student, was less than 300 metres away taking a night class at Salisbury Composite when the first explosion went off. She didn’t hear anything but some other students said they did. When the RCMP first arrived, students were told to remain in their classrooms, but about an hour or so later they were allowed to leave.
“It’s crazy to me that this happened in Sherwood Park,” Proskiw said. “We assume that we live in a bubble here in Sherwood Park and that we are safe all the time, so you just don’t expect something like this to happen.”
Classes at the high school were cancelled Wednesday and the school will remain closed Thursday.
Mayor Rod Frank, who was in one of the buildings, said he noticed smoke and fire after the explosions.
“Obviously this could have been far more tragic and I’m grateful for the rapid response,” he said. “It’s impossible to know right now the motivation for this desperate action.”
Police would not say where the explosions happened in the twolevel parkade or what caused them. They did not know if they caused any structural damage.
One media outlet, quoting unnamed security sources, said the explosive was Tannerite but when asked, Kalist said at this stage those reports were simply speculation.
Tannerite is a brand of exploding target and consists of a pair of separated substances that, when combined, cause a loud noise and a cloud of water vapour.
Kalist said the unit will “remain on scene and the area will remain secure until we are able to determine a cause of the explosion and ensure that there are no other potential threats.”