Calgary police refuted rumours circulating online of multiple carjackings at gunpoint in the city’s downtown core Wednesday afternoon.
Police said a stolen vehicle incident involving high rates of speed started at about 10:30 a.m. Just after 3:30 p.m., a statement from police said no one had been injured as a result and that officers were “actively dealing with the situation as it evolves.”
On Wednesday evening, police said a man and woman had been arrested in connection with the stolen vehicle and that charges were pending.
Later in the evening, RCMP said they believed the stolen vehicle incident was connected to a dangerous, three-day crime spree outside of Calgary.
According to Calgary police, officers were alerted to a stolen vehicle entering city limits on Wednesday morning.
Officers and the Calgary police’s HAWCS helicopter monitored the vehicle for over seven hours before it stopped outside an apartment building in the 2000 block of 11 Avenue S.W. At around 6 p.m., officers arrested the man and woman without incident. Charges are pending.
Nobody was injured as a result of the stolen car incident, police said.
An online thread on the social news networking site Reddit–called “Downtown Lockdown”–suggested someone with a police contact was warning people about armed gunmen pulling people out of cars in downtown Calgary.
Global News was also sent a copy of an email that matched the Reddit post. The email was reportedly also sent to employees in downtown Calgary offices. It reads:
“I have just confirmed this is correct and currently active with the Calgary Police. My brother in law works closely with the Calgary Police forensics department and he has just advised that there are two armed gunmen in downtown Calgary pulling people out of cars and holding them at gunpoint. They are being tracked but are at large. I have been advised to stay in the building. I thought I would share this advice. This is not a joke.”
Police said they had not advised businesses and buildings in the downtown core to lock down.
“Rumours of armed gunmen carjacking people in the Calgary downtown core are not true,” police said.
Police said they expect to release more information about the incident on Thursday.
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