RCMP ends 16-hour standoff in Iqaluit

Police in Iqaluit ended a 16-hour standoff Saturday afternoon, taking a man into custody after tactical officers forced their way into an apartment building on Tasilik Street.

“We got ‘em, boys,” an RCMP officer was overheard telling a group of children at about 4:20 p.m.

An RCMP vehicle drives away from Tasilik Street in Iqaluit where police took a man into custody following a 16-hour standoff that began when police responded to a call that shots had been fired in a home. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)

One boy was heard telling an officer, “I like your drone,” one of the tools police used throughout the day.

At 4:20 p.m., a man was seen in the back seat of a police vehicle, banging hard on the window, as police drove away.

Iqaluit RCMP officers had been in the area since 12:50 a.m., early Saturday morning, when they responded to a report that shots had been fired in a residence. Police took a person away in a vehicle at about 2 a.m., but it’s not clear if that person was taken into custody.

Children who lived nearby were among the onlookers who watched the police operation unfold throughout the day despite the shelter-in-place advisory police issued at 1:18 a.m.

A man who lives in the building said he knew the man police were trying to talk into surrendering. Jimmy Markoosie described him as his neighbour.

“He comes around and drinks with us once in a while, but he hasn’t been around for a while, so I guess something ticked him [off] and … he’s in this situation now.”

Markoosie told a Nunatsiaq News reporter the man had come over to his apartment to “apologize” and that he went “berserk overnight.”

Police had tried since at least 4:30 a.m. to get the man to leave his apartment with his hands up.

“They’ve been there ever since,” Markoosie said at about 2:30 p.m., when he and his wife were finally able to leave their own apartment.

“I tried leaving earlier today, but [the police] wouldn’t let me go,” he said.

Jimmy Markoosie, who was led from his apartment by a police escort, says he knows the man involved in a 16-hour standoff. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)

Once they were out, police stepped up their activity. Officers were seen with a battering ram and guns that could be used to fire tear gas or a flash bang, a grenade police use to stun people in a standoff long enough for them to enter a building and apprehend them.

A various times throughout the day, police blared their vehicles’ sirens, threw rocks against the building and called out to the man, telling him to come to the window, as well as telling him to come downstairs where they “left a cellphone for you.”

They spent the next 16 hours — until 4:40 p.m. — focused on building 2245, a multiplex apartment building called Crosswinds.

At 4:40 p.m., police lifted a shelter-in-place advisory that was sent to Iqaluit residents’ cellphones at 1:18 a.m. and posted on Facebook at 1:54 a.m., a news release issued by RCMP spokesperson Sgt. George Henrie said. One person had been taken into custody. There was no longer a threat to public safety, it added.

There were about 20 officers dressed in green camouflage-style tactical uniforms at the height of the police activity in the middle of the afternoon.

An RCMP aircraft from Ottawa arrived in Iqaluit just before 1 p.m., according to the Flightaware air-traffic tracking app.

The official response included an ambulance and fire truck stationed near the police activity, however, no one was seen receiving attention from paramedics.