Last Saturday, a short dirt road in Calling Lake was the site of an hours-long armed standoff between an Emergency Response Team and residents of a home at the end of the road.
By Sunday afternoon, all was quiet on the street save for kids biking along the gravel. Among the cyclists were Clayton Cardinal’s children.
“We didn’t know what was going on,” said Cardinal of when he first noticed police cars pass his place on May 17.
Cardinal’s home is one of 15 or so along the road.
The RCMP vehicles started appearing around 7:30 a.m., he said, and at 9:30 a.m., he, along with every other family on the street, was ordered to evacuate.
“I thought it was a forest fire or something,” said Cardinal of what was going through his mind as he gathered his four children, including a baby.
In fact, the danger came from firearms brandished by Cardinal’s neighbours, not a fire.
Corporal Rick Dozois with the Athabasca RCMP stated events started when RCMP received a call at 5:50 a.m. A man had gone to borrow cigarettes from the home that would become the scene of the standoff.
“When the door opened, the homeowner pointed a gun a the victim’s forehead and said he was going to kill him,” said Dozois in a press release.
Athabasca RCMP responded, but were denied access to the residence. The occupants also threatened to shoot the officers.
A child was in the home, as were firearms; this is when RCMP evacuated the Cardinal family and other families nearby.
RCMP negotiated the child’s release, and the child was picked up by a relative.
When the Emergency Response Team arrived, “There was a standoff at the home for several hours, during which the occupants threw firecrackers out the window and shouted obscenities at the police officers,” said Dozois.
Over the course of the morning, several people trickled out of the home and surrendered themselves to police. Finally, the residents came out of the house at 11:30 a.m. and were arrested; shortly after that, the evacuated families were allowed to return to their homes.
“Two adults, a male and a female, have been arrested and are facing charges,” said Dozois.
The two are being held in custody until a bail hearing and court date can be arranged.
Cardinal said he views the incident as stemming from a personal dispute and doesn’t fear for the neighbourhood’s safety.
“You don’t bug nobody, and nobody bothers you,” he said.
