High-risk event leads to school lockdown

Witness reported hearing shots fired after RCMP swarmed a trailer park near Highway 5

A high-risk police operation at a trailer park in Kamloops involving a suspect believed to be armed resulted in a lockdown at nearby businesses and an elementary school and the closure of Highway 5.

Cpl. Jodi Shelkie said there was a significant police presence including an emergency response team at the G & M Trailer Park near the highway on Friday.

Mounties instructed parents not to pick up their children from the nearby school. Instead, Shelkie said students were bused to a local bridge where parents could pick them up.

Residents of the trailer park were told to remain inside and to lock their doors and windows.

Nicole Calver, a receptionist at the First Nations Tax Commission, said she heard sirens at about 11 a.m. Friday and looked out the window to see about 15 RCMP vehicles head into a trailer park across the street.

“That’s where we saw the squad vehicle ram a green truck,” she said.

“We did hear, we did witness six gunshots and we saw people running around, I think a squad team ... running around the trailer park after that.”

The nearby Sk’elep School of Excellence went into lockdown, Calver said, adding she heard the announcement from the school’s speaker.

People in her office had been instructed to stay away from windows and not to go outside, she said.