Man barricades himself in west St. Catharines home

A residential street in west St. Catharines was closed for several hours Sunday as police responded to reports of a disturbance.

The call came in about 10:45 a.m. Sunday. Niagara Regional Police officers responded to a residence on Westland Street, near Pelham Road.

Officers found a 59-year-old woman and a 21-year-old woman both suffering from injuries from an assault.

Further investigation determined that a 23-year-old St. Catharines man was still in the residence and armed with weapons. The male had barricaded the residence to prevent officers from entering.

Uniform officers commenced negotiations with the man to no avail.

The residence was contained by officers, and Westland Street between McIntyre Avenue and Stirling Street was closed for most of the day.

Shortly before 6 p.m., Const. Phil Gavin tweeted that the person involved was taken into police custody.

The arrested man, who police are not identifying in order to protect the victims, is charged with assault causing bodily harm, two counts of utter threats, two counts of assault with a weapon, attempted murder, and two counts of possession of weapon contrary to prohibition order.

A police presence remained at the residence Monday as detectives forensically processed the residence.