According to the Winnipeg Free Press, a worker in an empty house saw a man with a gun. Frightened, he fled and called police. The police came and surrounded the building, putting schools in the area into lockdown mode. After a few hours, they went into the house, and found no one there.
The Freep says they couldn’t confirm if the lockdown was then immediately rescinded, but according to the radio report I heard on CBC, it sounds like it. The CBC also mentioned that it was two schools that were locked down. (UPDATE: the CBC website says just one school.)
Here’s what gets me: if you think there’s a guy with a gun barricaded in a building, why bother to lock down a school that’s somewhere else?
And, once you go into the building and determine that he’s not in there, presumably he’s somewhere else? Ie. you reasonably think there’s a man with a gun just wandering about? But that’s the time to lift the lockdown?
In my opinion, there’s no reason to lock down the school unless you see someone with a gun actually entering the school. Did they lock down local businesses, too? Maybe force everyone within a half mile to stay inside their homes just because one guy thinks he saw a guy who might have been carrying a gun?
I guess it’s official — the terrorists have won.
Grant Hamilton
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Colin Corneau