Police close Ontario Street, make arrest after gun call
Mother of suspect says son was attacked earlier in the day, was carrying a BB gun
A man was arrested by Niagara Regional Police after dozens of officers, including tactical officers with shields, surrounded a downtown St. Catharines apartment building Wednesday.
Police have not released the name of the man, nor were charges laid after the incident which saw police shut down traffic outside 158 Ontario St. shortly after 11 a.m.
Const. Phil Gavin said officers responded to multiple 911 calls about a man in the building who had a long gun.
Officers from the tactical unit and crisis negotiators were on scene and, when the apartment the man was in was secured, he surrendered to police without incident at about 12:25 p.m.
Contrary to social media posts Wednesday afternoon, there was no active shooter in the building and the building was not placed in “lockdown.” Residents were allowed to leave the building but were not permitted back inside until after the incident was over.
No one was harmed during the incident.
The arrested man’s mother, who asked not to be identified, said her son had been at a friend’s home to do target practice with their BB guns. While he was walking home carrying the BB gun — she said it does look like an AK-47 assault rifle — he stopped at a convenience store near Taylor and York streets.
There he got into an argument with the store owner over the use of a debit
card. She said her son was hit on the back of the head with a baseball bat and, when he returned home, he was agitated and wanted to call police.
However, police arrived at the apartment before he could call them.
Gavin could not immediately comment on an incident preceding the arrival of police to the apartment building, said the police investigation is ongoing and detectives are still in the process of interviewing witnesses.