Police search for gunman in Kamloops

KAMLOOPS — A police search at a trailer park in Kamloops Friday for a suspect believed to be armed resulted in a lockdown at nearby businesses and an elementary school, as well as the closing of Highway 5 in the area.

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

Mounties instructed parents not to pick up their children from the nearby school. Instead, students were bused to a nearby 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 about 11 a.m. Friday and looked out the window to see about 15 RCMP vehicles head into the 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 that 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.

Calver said she was listing to radio reports “to plan our routes home, if we can get out of here.”