AN RCMP emergency response team was called out to a North Vancouver neighbourhood Tuesday evening after a distraught man holed himself up in his house and refused to speak to police.
RCMP went to the house in the 900-block of Cloverley Street around 6 p.m. after getting a call from a member of the mans family concerned that he had threatened to harm himself.
When the man refused to open the door, police cordoned off the block and called in backup.
An RCMP negotiator spent the next several hours on the phone to the man, eventually convincing him to come out of the house.
He was taken to Lions Gate Hospital for medical treatment shortly before midnight.
Although nothing came of the confrontation, the incident was worrying to neighbours, said Lorne Poole, a resident of Cloverley.
There were probably 13 or 14 RCMP officers there; there was a K-9 squad. . . . Then they started to bring in ERT vehicles.
There was guy after guy with the full-on black suits, he said. (The police) said they werent able to tell us anything. . . . A whole bunch of residents were like: Do I go to my house? Do I want to?
Poole didnt criticize the behaviour of the officers on scene, but he said better communication could have helped allay fears, especially given that the incident unfolded within a block of an elementary school.
If something is going on in your area, you as a resident have a right to know, he said. There are lots of little kids in this neighbourhood.
Despite appearances, there was actually no threat to public safety, said Cpl. Richard De Jong, spokesman for the North Vancouver RCMP. The large response was just a necessary precaution, he explained.
A situation can be very volatile, very fluid. Anything can happen very quickly, said De Jong. Wed rather have extra resources available.
Fortunately nobody was hurt or injured.
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