Tear gas hovered in the air around the corner of Burnside Road East and Carroll Street Friday morning after the Greater Victoria Emergency Response Team, armed with assault rifles, arrested a man after he barricaded himself inside a residence.
The man was arrested just after 9:30 a.m. at a suite in a multi-unit residential building that he is barred from residing in by court-ordered conditions stemming from an assault conviction.
Officers originally contacted him earlier this week when he breached his conditions. Speaking with him on multiple occasions over the last several days, officers negotiated with the man to give himself up.
The man continued to refuse and barricaded himself in the suite.
After hours of negotiation, officers warned the man Friday morning that CS gas would be used to drive him out of the suite. Continuing to refuse to surrender himself, GVERT officers deployed the gas, prompting the man to exit the suite and give himself up to police officers.
RELATED: Man taken into custody after hours-long standoff in Victoria
He was taken into custody and transported back to cells in the GVERT Rescue Vehicle for decontamination.
The man will be held in custody until his court date for four offences relating to multiple breaches of court-ordered conditions. He will be connected to supportive resources in the meantime.
Following the arrest, police could be seen wandering the grounds with gas masks, entering into a ground level suite with broken windows.
After the suspect was in custody, Victoria firefighters set up fans to clear the tear gas out of the suite.
People in the vicinity complained of burning eyes and lungs from the residual gas.
The air around the apartment at Burnside and Carroll was thick with teargas this morning as VicPD and the Emergency Response Team arrested one man. #yyj @VictoriaNews pic.twitter.com/6mK5KZQIxn
— Keri Coles (@KeriColesPhotog) February 1, 2019
Police arrested a man after a seven-hour standoff from the same building in December. Officers and negotiators were there for a man breaching probation who refused to leave an apartment.
While police said the man arrested Friday was known to them, they have not confirmed if it is the same man that was arrested in December.
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