Police evacuate CEGEP, investigate potential hoax
Investigators are questioning a man who may have called in a false report alleging a gunman was stalking the grounds outside Collège de Valleyfield Friday night.
Officers from the SQ’s SWAT team removed about 400 students from the CEGEP around 7:45 p.m. after reports of a suspicious man lurking near the school. Police put the building on lockdown just after 3 p.m., responding to an anonymous 911 caller’s claims of a possible gunman in the area.
Police searched the area for hours, but never found anyone matching the caller’s description. They later traced the call to a young man’s telephone; investigators were still interviewing him as of 9 p.m. Friday.
“He’s being interviewed as a person of interest. No arrest has been made,” said Audrey-Anne Bilodeau, a spokesperson for the SQ.
Regardless of the authenticity of Friday’s 911 call, students at the school experienced something of a tense evening as they waited for the SWAT team to search the building — classroom by classroom — before being allowed to leave.
“There’s still some worries ... but there’s no panic right now,” Guy Laperrière, the CEGEP’s director general, said just before 8 p.m. “Everything is going fine; there are still people outside waiting to go back in for their personal effects. That’s what we’re trying to organize right now.”
Some parents waited anxiously outside the Salaberry-de-Valleyfield CEGEP for hours, tearfully reuniting with their children.
RCMP officers were also on the scene, providing the SQ with additional support. If the call was a false alarm or a hoax, charges could be laid, according to the SQ.