On Thursday, October 25th a dramatic armed standoff happened in south Winnipeg.
Yesterday afternoon multiple police units were dispatched to the Bottle Shop beer vendor on Pembina Highway and Plaza Drive, the reports and more than one call came in describing a disturbing event, a man barricaded inside the building and refused to come out.
The ordeal started at about 3:40 p.m. Police say the man initially locked several employees inside, but they were able to quickly flee the building. CJOB reporter Will Reimer said he witnessed what he described as “an explosion of gunfire” at 7:20 p.m. that turned out to be a less-lethal weapon, according to police. Witnesses said it appeared to be a beanbag gun. The man was taken away in handcuffs.
Thankfully, nobody got injured, a man was arrested and remains in police custody. The negotiating team was also called to talk the man down. A negotiating team tried to convince a lone man inside a liquor store, armed with a knife, to put down his weapon.
“Put the knives down, Alex, and you can go see your family,” officers told the agitated man inside. “Just put the knives down; no one’s coming in.”
As of now, there is no police statement of any other information about the man`s demand or if he even asked for anything, also his identity remains undisclosed.
The standoff lasted for a couple of hours when the situation got tense at about 6:20 p.m. when the man started to step outside with a knife in his hand.
Police raised their weapons as the man stepped into the doorway then ultimately went back into the store. Reimer described the knife as “quite large” and said the man was also holding a beer. “Where the f**k is my family. Show me my family,” the man yelled at the police. “Show me they’re safe. The cops kidnapped my family.”
Reimer said police asked the man, who is wearing a red sweater, heavy brown jacket, and beige pants, to stop drinking so much alcohol. No fewer than eight police officers were at the front doors.
Even though police asked the people on the street to stay away to ensure their safety and so no one would interfere in police and the negotiating teams work, still hundreds of people gathered across the street. As a result, there were few dozen Facebook posts and tweets with pictures and videos taken by random people describing what was happening at Pembina Highway.
The standoff ended a couple hours later, nobody got hurt, so as police officers said, this is the best scenario for such an intense situation. The investigation is still continuing, detectives are working to cover all possible angles, to check all the reasons, which could lead to such outcome. No information about the arrested man, if he is working with the investigation if he provided the statement of what happened and why he acted in such a way.