Nanaimo RCMP officers found a 45-year-old man who'd thrown away a broken pellet gun, not someone with a workable firearm at Port Place Shopping Centre. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

false alarm

Nanaimo RCMP respond with guns drawn to Port Place Mall

Apr 3, 2020 | 9:46 AM

NANAIMO — A serious police presence was called to the Port Place Shopping Centre for what ended up being a “ridiculous” false alarm.

Cst. Gary O’Brien said a firearms call at the downtown mall came in around 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 2.

Officers found two men, one who’d been seen with the firearm in question. It ended up being an unusable pellet gun he’d thrown away into the bushes.

“We treat every call where there’s potential for a firearm as real,” O’Brien said. “It was considered a high-risk situation so they had their service pistols drawn and they were prepared to react to whatever they were faced with.”

O’Brien said since the 45-year-old man in question wasn’t threatening anyone with the firearm or saying anything inappropriate, there was no grounds for a charge.

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He did have stern words for the suspect.

“It’s ridiculous to think you would walk around in this day and age with a pellet gun on you,” O’Brien said. “There’s no reason for anybody to have a firearm on them, whether it’s operable or not.”

He stressed police treat every firearms call as real and officers don’t have the time to determine if a weapon is fake or not before they react.

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