REDWATER, Alta. — Police spent much of Tuesday surrounding a Redwater motel where an armed man wanted for allegedly shooting at police during a Sunday traffic stop had barricaded himself.
Redwater RCMP were advised around 8:00 AM that Edmonton police officers were in the area investigating an individual with outstanding warrants, RCMP said in a release.
EPS confirmed Tuesday night that the man in the motel was wanted in connection with a violent traffic stop in the west end days earlier.
When police pulled over a Toyota 4Runner Sunday night, the driver shot at the officers before fleeing the scene.
The suspect barricaded in the motel Tuesday fired shots, and the RCMP Emergency Response Team was deployed, the RCMP release said.
Officers surrounded the Red Rest motel, at 5311 48th Avenue, shortly before 9:00 AM, Redwater Mayor Mel Smith said.
An area resident said he watched as a police robot broke the suite’s window, and a young man in handcuffs was taken away from the building and loaded into an ambulance around 3 p.m.
The man was yelling and screaming and “out to lunch,” said Don Hamer, who lives next door.
“He was just making one sound. Just a holler. He’d shut up for a second and then he’d start again,” Hamer said.
The door of a first-floor suite remained wide open Tuesday night, and the suite’s window was shattered. Glass and debris from the window frame littered the snow.
Redwater resident Perry Strand woke up from a late-morning nap and went to let his dog outside when an RCMP officer stopped him.
“He told us he was there for our protection. They had told us to get down in the basement because whatever he (the suspect) had could go through our house, our windows. That gave us a bit of nervousness there,” said Strand, who lives across the street from the motel. His home doesn’t have a basement, so he and his wife instead stayed low and kept away from the windows.
Shortly after noon, he heard two loud bangs — muffled explosions that were louder than gunshots.
“They were explosions, like they blew something up,” he said.
From his window across the street, Strand glimpsed three armoured police vehicles, including one carrying tactical officers dressed in camouflage.
He said police used a battering ram attached to one of the armoured vehicles to break through the door of a first-floor suite in the motel.
“You can see the curtains blowing through the broken window now,” he said.
Mayor Smith said the heavy police presence was noticed quickly in the town,
“We’ve got dozens of police cars, they’ve got their trailers out and it is busy,” he said.
Deborah Rideout was sleeping around 9:30 AM when her husband woke her up to show her two unmarked police cars with lights flashing and what appeared to be a grey armoured truck parking in front of the motel across the street.
“We thought it was a robbery. It looked like an armoured vehicle or a Brinks vehicle but there was no writing on it,” Rideout said.
“Nobody was allowed to move out of their house.”
Rideout could see flashing emergency vehicle lights farther up the road and eventually there were about seven unmarked police vehicles at the scene. Officers with dogs and carrying guns converged on the motel and two black armoured vehicles arrived, she said.
“They had a robot go in. There were officers everywhere. There was a lot of commotion,” she said.
“It was like watching a movie from your own window.”
Shortly before 3:00 PM, an officer came to Rideout’s door to say everything was over and they were safe, she said.
The Redwater fire department was also at the scene and was assisting with traffic control, Smith said.
One man was taken into custody and there were no injuries in the incident, RCMP said in the release.
Redwater is 60 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.
© Postmedia News, 2012