Kuujuaq-On Friday January 3rd, a 20-year-old man with a medical history of mental illness, spurned on by an insult from an unidentified local, triggered a 20-hour standoff with Kativik Regional Police.
Fortunately, the standoff ended on Saturday, January 4th, 2003, with no fatalities, although one local man, Taamusi Sivuaraapik received non-life threatening pellet wounds in his forehead, temple, and throat.
The shooting spree had started at around 8:40 P.M. on Friday evening, after which the man retreated into house 349, from which he continued to shoot.
Local constables from the Kativik Regional Police Force, as well as Canadian Rangers set up a perimeter around the dwelling. Around 3:30 A.M. on Saturday, additional police from Kuujjuaraapik joined them in the standoff.
The KRPF called in a team of tactical experts from the Montreal detachment of the Surete de Quebec, but before the S.Q. could get to Puvirnituq, police had taken the man into custody.
According to KRPF Captain Larry Hubert, “We started to go after him, there was a foot pursuit and he was taken into custody without incident at 5:04 P.M.
Jane George, director of communications for the Kativik regional Government cautioned that violent crime is on the rise, due to the increase in Drug and Alcohol abuse, although statistics for alcohol and drug abuse were not kept as recent as 10 years ago.
“The increase of the number of flights coming in, as well as easier access to alcohol like the SAQ website, where people can get their alcohol delivered,” George cites, adds up to a disproportionate number of criminal violence.
