Roxboro rifle rough-up ends peacefully

An overnight confrontation between a man who had locked himself up inside his home with a rifle and Montreal police’s Major Crimes unit on a residential street in Pierrefonds/ Roxboro ended peacefully this morning at about 8:30 a.m., when the man surrendered.

“The man that had barricaded himself inside his home in Roxboro delivered himself to a police officer on the scene after several hours of negotiation,” explained media relations officer Raphaël Bergeron.

Bergeron said police got a telephone call shortly after midnight today about the case on 16th Street in Roxboro. “We don’t know the motivation, why the man barricaded himself in the first place. He will probably be sent to evaluation,” the officer added.

Though nobody was hurt, the incident was not completely inconsequential. According to a nearby resident who consented to speak to The Chronicle on condition of anonymity, several of the neighbours immediately surrounding the home in question were woken up overnight by police in order to be evacuated for safety reasons.

They were loaded up on a bus and taken to Rideau Memorial Gardens and Funeral Home, which flanks 16th Street, according to the resident.

“I don’t know why (police) didn’t wake me too,” said the resident as he sipped his morning coffee on his front porch while light rain continued to fall.

“When we woke up this morning, everything had gone to hell,” the resident said, recalling several police cars surrounding the house. He said he had gotten up at about 7 a.m.

According to police, the man had locked himself up in his home alone. The resident said an entire family lives there. “I know he’s a nice guy, they have a family,” the resident, surprised at the turn of events, said. He added he has never known the family, but has seen a child on a bicycle emerge from the home and return.

Though there were parked cars in the driveways of other surrounding homes, none of the latter appeared to be occupied this morning after 9 a.m. “I don’t think they’re home yet,” the resident said, theorizing police must not have returned the evacuees.

By 9:45 a.m., there was only a single patrol car parked near the house where the confrontation had taken place “Everything is over. The big show is over,” one of the two officers in the vehicle said. “We’re just waiting for the investigators,” he added.

A white van was parked in the home’s driveway, and another, dark green one appeared to have been hurriedly left on the front yard’s grass.

Rideau Gardens had no traces of any unusual overnight guests this morning. The graveyard was deserted save for a quiet mourner walking about in the rain.