A heavy police response was seen in Marysville on Monday, as several RCMP teams acted to defuse a tense situation.
RCMP officials said the man was in the 800-block of Marysville’s 307 Street when emergency responders were sent out at 8:30 a.m. on Monday.
He was found inside an RV and threatened suicide if police attempted to come in.
Kimberley RCMP officials said the area was secured with help from the Southeast District Containment Team until the Emergency Response Team arrived.
“The individual mentioned that he had a weapon,” said Kimberley RCMP detachment commander Steve Woodcox. “We called in the containment team for more members to keep that individual to one area. We don’t want someone suffering from mental distress to get out of that area and possibly go to another residence or the nearby school where there are innocent people involved.”
The nearby school was kept safe and several homes were also evacuated as a precaution.
“We put the Marysville Elementary School on lockdown just to make sure all the children were inside and safe and kept that individual contained until the RCMP negotiator made contact,” said Woodcox.
RCMP said the negotiator was engaged for a few hours before the man exited the RV.
“There were no injuries to the man involved and no injuries to anyone else,” said Woodcox. “Sometimes these things take a long amount of time to negotiate with people and at the end of the day, it all turned out successful.”
The man was taken into custody and taken to the East Kootenay Regional Hospital.