Abbotsford police raided second location Friday

The Abbotsford Police Department deployed its emergency response team (ERT) at a Horizon Street house Friday evening, following a raid at the Alpine Motor Inn on Marshall Road.

Heavily armed police officers detained one person between both operations, said Const. Rob Dyck with the APD, adding that the two operations were related to one another.

The investigation is still ongoing, and the major crimes unit is not releasing details on the raids, including the reason for the search warrants.

However, Dyck said police were searching for items rather than people, and that the one individual arrested Friday afternoon at the Alpine Motor Inn was released Saturday morning.

The Alpine Motor Inn is situated in the same parking lot as a liquor store and is across the street from the Abbotsford School of Integrated Arts North Poplar campus, an elementary school. The incident drew widespread public attention, with a couple dozen people standing across the street from the operation with cell phone cameras drawn and rolling.

Witnesses reported seeing flashbangs thrown into the unit shortly after their arrival, at around 3 p.m., but the man was not detained until shortly before 4 p.m..

The man was seen leaving the motel unit with his hands raised above his head, one hand stuck in a sweater or jacket. After dropping to his knees, he pulled the article of clothing off of his hand to reveal he was not concealing any items and he laid out on the ground and was arrested.

After he was detained, the man was checked out by paramedics before being searched and placed in the back of a police cruiser and driven away.

Dyck couldn’t offer a specific time that the Horizon Street operation took place, but said it would have been shortly after leaving the motel, nor could he say how long that operation took.