Police charge man who barricaded himself inside Parliament Hill’s East Block
A man was holed up in the East Block on Parliament Hill for hours, sparking first a lockdown, then an evacuation of staff.
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A 31-year-old man who barricaded himself inside the East Block on Parliament Hill for several hours was arrested late Saturday “without incident,” according to a social media post from the Ottawa Police Service.
The man, who was not identified, has been charged with two counts of breach of probation, public mischief and uttering threats to cause property damage, police said in a news release Sunday.
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Sunday morning, police said the man “surrendered peacefully” following “hours of negotiations.” No one was injured.
On Saturday afternoon, the OPS said a man had barricaded himself in the historic building just before 3 p.m.
They also said the man did not have explosives, weapons or hazardous materials, and several packages found in the screening area were cleared. The man was to appear in court on Sunday.
The incident led to a huge police response involving agents from the Parliamentary Protective Service, the OPS and the RCMP, who locked down the building and surrounding area.
Dozens of police cars surrounded the building and the stretch of Wellington Street in front of the parliamentary precinct was shut to traffic and pedestrians. Hill employees were not allowed to enter the parliamentary precinct.
The East Block houses the offices of senators and their staff. As it was a weekend and Parliament is not currently sitting, the building was likely mostly unoccupied.
But shortly after the suspect burst into the office building, PPS issued a rare alert ordering senators and their staff to “seek shelter in the nearest room. Close and lock all doors and hide.”
The same order was sent to the Prime Minister’s Office and Privy Council Office staff in a building across to the street to do the same.
Roughly 15 minutes later, another memo ordered East Block occupants to evacuate, suggesting police quickly knew that the intruder did not pose a major threat to building occupants.
Numerous tactical units and bomb-sniffing dogs were seen outside the East Block building throughout the afternoon.
Within an hour of the alert, police deployed what appeared to be a bomb disposal robot towards the building. Later, two more such robots were deployed, but it was unclear if they were ever sent into East Block.
Nearly five hours after the incident began, police had still not shared information about the intruder’s identity or apparent motive. Nor did they say if he was armed in any way.
Ottawa police Insp. Mark Bouwmeester told reporters at around 7:30 p.m. that “the circumstances of this incident are considered suspicious,” but gave few details about what was happening inside.
“We’re currently in contact with the individual and our priority is to resolve this situation peacefully,” he said. “At this time there is no known injuries and we believe that the man is the only person inside the building.”
Saturday night, pedestrians and others mingled as normal on Sparks Street, just beyond the police cordon.
A worker walked outside D’Arcy McGee’s restaurant and bar asking if the live music echoing from speakers outside was too loud. It was turned off shortly after that.
But if you didn’t first look at Wellington, you would have been hard-pressed to notice something out of the usual on Sparks. A delivery worker was stocking items inside a café, a man walked his dog and groups of friends walked the strip or huddled outside to finish cigarettes or conversations as the standoff on the Hill was underway.
With files from The Canadian Press
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