It took a significant police presence and several hours before roads were opened up in the Auchinachie Road area of North Cowichan Wednesday night, April 25, after a man barricaded himself in a residence.
Neighbours became worried when a large number of police and an armoured vehicle showed up but RCMP spokesperson, Cpl. Tammy Douglas, said Thursday that the incident looked worse than it was.
She was part of the onsite team.
“I’m a negotiator so I was there,” she said.
“He was barricaded inside a residence. We got out of there about 10:30 last night. We responded to a call of a male that was barricaded in a residence and after several hours and a large police presence he was arrested without incident.”
The file is still being investigated, she said, adding that she is working with the North Cowichan/Duncan detachment to decide if more information will be released.
There was considerable speculation and discussion, from a distance, on Facebook Wednesday night about what might be happening, starting with a message from Mark Sorenson on Neighbourhood Watch Cowichan saying “Stay away from Auchinachie area by Drombeg”.
Many comments posted were along the lines of “Doesn’t look good. Stay safe and out of their way,” “I’m two roads over, kinda nervous”, or “Hope everyone is OK…we have big city problems now”.
A couple of hours later, one woman posted, “If it was a dangerous situation, they wouldn’t allow all the people to stand in the street. Seems like the situation is handled. I walked past the Crime Unit and everyone’s doing their jobs! I hope everyone comes out of this situation OK. Thoughts are with them.”
Later, a man posted, “And now we start to figure out what rules need and should apply. Or maybe new rules need to be made. Whatever is going on, someone is having a bad day in their life, the RCMP are attempting to help and get them the help they need. Obviously the rest of us are safe, even with the heavy police presence. So, let’s let them do their job and possibly tomorrow the press will put the rumour to rest.”