UPDATE: Police incident in West Kelowna neighbourhood over, school lockdown lifted | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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UPDATE: Police incident in West Kelowna neighbourhood over, school lockdown lifted

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Original Publication Date January 14, 2020 - 12:11 PM

A police incident in a West Kelowna neighbourhood has been dealt with and Glenrosa Middle School is no longer on lockdown.

The neighbourhood was on edge today, Jan. 14, as it dealt with a heavy police presence and news that an area school has been put on lockdown.

RCMP Const. Lesley Smith issued a news release at around 2 p.m., and said shortly after 10:40 a.m today West Kelowna RCMP attempted to stop a motor vehicle on Glenrosa Road and the vehicle failed to stop for police and sped away.

"A short time later, frontline members located the vehicle unoccupied and with the support of the RCMP Air Services and the Police Dog Services, a track was established and police saturated the area," Smith said in the release.

"In order to ensure public safety, police closed a portion of the roadway and notified several businesses including a local school during the unfolding police incident. The incident was not related to the school and notification was only precautionary in nature."

Central Okanagan School District superintendent Kevin Kaardal said the situation ended at 12:25 p.m., about an hour after it started, and classes resumed with no issue.

"A lockdown happens when somebody in the community or on school property has a weapon," he explained, adding that in this case the person was not on school property. "We lock school doors and classroom doors... we act in an abundance of caution in support of the RCMP for safety of students and staff."

Information gets delivered to students as this happens, but they don't put out a notice to the community lest the person who may be a risk hears it, he said. 

Kaardal said the RCMP did a great job and had an officer on site to make sure nobody came onto school grounds.

Neighbours first became aware of the incident when an RCMP plane circled overhead. Others had been told to stay in their homes as a yet to be identified threat is dealt with.

Smith said the investigation remains active at this time and no further information will be provided at this time.

— This story was updated at 12:56 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2020, to include information from the school district.

— This story was updated at 2:18 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2020, to include information from RCMP.


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