TERRACE RCMP finished a busy week Oct. 7 with the capture of a man who had kept them in a stand off for eight hours two days earlier, before eluding capture.
The end of the hunt for Samuel Kenneth Ratchford, 31, came peacefully Oct. 7 when after less than an hour of negotiation in mid-afternoon, he exited a residence on Mountainview Ave., was taken into custody and put under arrest.
Ratchford was wanted in relation to ongoing investigations prior to the Oct. 5 stand off and was facing charges of assault, uttering threats, kidnapping with a firearm and pointing a firearm, said Terrace RCMP Sgt. Shawn McLaughlin.
As far as new charges from the stand off itself, McLaughlin said late Oct. 7 that police were continuing to investigate.
Last week’s police encounter with Ratchford also began on Mountainview when, on the morning of Oct. 5, they went to a residence there to locate him.
Police quickly told residents of Mountainview and adjacent Sande, Crescentview and Toynbee streets in lower Thornhill to remain inside and to lock their doors.
What transpired then was an eight-hour standoff which in the early afternoon of Oct.5 became an evacuation of the residents of the area.
That’s because police received information that a natural gas stove in the resident where Ratchford was located had been left on.
With worries about safety to officers and civilians, the evacuation was ordered, resulting to a wider area police would have to cover.
But when police finally entered the house around 6 p.m. that day, Ratchford was nowhere to be found, leading to a renewed search and the issuing of a warrant against Ratchford for assault stemming from their initial investigation.
Police were also telling people not to approach Ratchford and to phone 911 if he was spotted.
The difference between the Oct. 5 stand off and how police successfully got Ratchford so quickly this second time was having contact with him, said McLaughlin.
He said officers established contact with him by cell phone and face to face.
