A police incident that began just before 6 a.m. has ended with one man down and police looking into the circumstances around the incident.
According to Insp. Phil Eastwood of the New Westminster Police Department, the incident ended just before 11 a.m. A man with a gun had been negotiating with police, but after a weapon was fired, the man was down and B.C. ambulance paramedics were called to attend to him. Police would not confirm whose weapon was fired.
The incident caused traffic to be snarled around the Starlight Casino and the Queensborough Bridge on Thursday morning.
While police initially closed off southbound lanes on the Queensborough Bridge, they had to subsequently close down the northbound lanes. Buses were re-routed away from the bridge as well.
Meanwhile, students going to Queensborough Middle School and Queen Elizabeth Elementary will be kept inside the school for safety reasons.
"We are not in a lockdown situation," superintendent John Woudzia told The Record just after 8:30 a.m. "Our principals, Jamie Sadler and Debbie Jones are on site and we have teachers who live in Queensborough who are coming in to look after the students. ... Needless to say, we are monitoring the situation and working closely with the police."
Brenda Smith, marketing manager at the Starlight Casino, told The Record just before 9 a.m. that she had received few details about the incident. Smith couldn't get into work because of the bridge closure and the casino was locked down while the incident was taking place.
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