Violent police stand-off grips POV

ODILE NELSON

Tension gripped Puvirnituq this past weekend when a young, mentally ill man, armed with his father’s 20-gauge shotgun, barricaded himself into his family home on Friday evening and forced a 20-hour stand-off with local police.

Before the incident ended peacefully the next afternoon, eight members of the Kativik Regional Police Force were guarding a perimeter around the building, the Sûreté de Quebec had been called in to force the young man out of the building, and the young man had shot a local elder three times.

Captain Larry Hubert headed the police response after he and three other officers arrived from Kuujjuarapik at 3 a.m. Saturday morning.

Hubert said he has been through such stand-offs before, but this one was exceptional because the young man has a history of schizophrenia.

“There have been gun calls in the area before. But it’s been years since something like this,” Hubert said. “In nine out of 10 cases they’re drunk and if there are no hostages, all we do is wait for them to sober up. We can usually talk them down the next day. But there was no talking sense with him. We had to take him. He wanted us to kill him or him to kill us.”

The event’s police log details a stand-off that, at times, grew more serious and unpredictable with each passing minute.

For example, at 9:38 p.m. on Friday, the suspect was discovered behind his family home. Four minutes after, he shot twice at a police truck. Two minutes later he shot at a police officer. Another five minutes and the young man had the rifle in his own mouth, threatening to take his own life.

And though the young man slept through the night, tensions mounted the next morning when a parade of friends and community members arrived to persuade the young man to surrender.

First came the young man’s father and brother-in-law. The frightened young man did not respond. Paulusi Novalinga arrived next and tried to pacify the young man through a loudspeaker. He again refused to answer.

Then at 10:20 a.m. Taamusi Sivuaraapik, a respected elder and local justice-of-the-peace, drove up on his snowmobile.

Before he even had a chance to speak, shots rang out from the home’s second- floor window. The elder was wounded with three pellet shots to his head and throat.

Though the pellet wounds were non-threatening, Sivuaraapik was sent to hospital and later to Montreal to have the pellets removed.

By 10:30 Saturday morning, with the seriousness of the situation rapidly escalating, Hubert was on the phone with the SQ in Kuujjuaq. He made an urgent request for the Kuujjuaq detachment to ask its Montreal branch for reinforcements. The SQ agreed and began organizing a unit of 15 tactical experts.

But 10 minutes before 5 p.m., with the SQ team on its way to Puvirnituq, the young man surprised everyone when he walked unarmed out of the house.

Police demanded he drop to the ground, but instead, the young man ran away from the building with police in pursuit. Less than two minutes later, police had wrestled him down.

By 5 p.m. Saturday, 20 hours after the first shots ripped through Puvirnituq, the police had their suspect in custody.

James Ivillaq, 20, was arraigned on charges of attempted murder, illegal use of a firearm, and evading arrest, in relation to the incident earlier this week, and has been transferred to Amos, Que.

Since his arrest, the town’s mayor and even the suspect’s parents have praised Hubert and the other seven KRPF officers who handled the incident.

“They were very professional. They did the best they could given the circumstances,” Novalinga said in an interview this week. “[Even] the parents are happy with the end result. Very much so. They are happy their son is alive.”