Police search QEII ER for weapons during lockdown
Posted Mar 10, 2011 05:35:29 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It’s believed the victim of a recent shooting may have prompted a lockdown at a Halifax hospital Wednesday evening.
Halifax Regional Police were called to the emergency department of the Queen Elizabeth II Health Science Centre around 5:15 p.m. due to the possible threat of criminal activity.
“They suspected that maybe one of the patients, or one of the persons waiting in the waiting room, had a weapon. We could not find any weapons on any persons there,” Staff Sgt. Darrell Gaudet told News 95.7 Thursday morning.
It’s uncertain when hospital staff issued the lockdown, or lifted it.
An email to our newsroom at 7:39 p.m. said no one was allowed to enter or exit the hospital while a huge police presence investigated criminal activity.
“We attended, spoke to several parties in the emergency room. We also searched the emergency room for the staff at the QEII. It was determined that there were no threats there,” said Gaudet.
Gaudet says police did not ask anyone to leave the premises, that that duty would have been left to hospital security.
It appears there may be a link to recent shootings in metro.
“The investigation is being looked at now by our detectives,” said Gaudet. “It may be related to incidents which occurred in the last couple of days but that cannot be confirmed.”
It’s believed one of the victims of a recent shooting may have attended the QEII for treatment, although it’s not known whether the criminal threat came from that person or someone who may have known they were at the hospital.
Police would not confirm which victim may have been seeking treatment.
A woman was shot in the front yard of her West Lawerencetown home on Tuesday. Media reports suggest she is either the wife or fiancée of a man who was shot outside the New Rodeo Lounge in Burnside late last Wednesday.
