WINNIPEG – Three people have been arrested after a gun was spotted during a fight inside a hockey arena.
Fear, panic and chaos ensued Sunday evening as players, children and parents fled a Winnipeg hockey rink after someone was seen with a gun.
Facebook video from the scene shows people screaming and scrambling to get away from the Dakota Community Centre/Jonathan Toews Sportsplex.
Police said they were called to the scene around 5:45 p.m.
Winnipeg police said a group of three men went to the community centre and got into an altercation with three other men who were watching the hockey tournament. Police said the men knew each other and the suspects showed up with an intent of violence.
“There may have been some longstanding issue between the parties,” Carver said. “Is there some criminality as a potential precursor… possibly.”
Staff and security intervened and that’s when one of the suspects was seen with a handgun.
“It must have been terrifying for the people who heard that,” Const. Rob Carver of the Winnipeg Police Service said. “I have seen replica guns. I cannot tell when it’s live and in front of me.”
Security personnel detained the suspects until police arrived. The weapon was determined to be a replica BB/pellet gun.
“No one in the heat of the moment could know that (it wasn’t real),” Carver said. “We as officers always assume they are real weapons.”
Ryan Boulanger, 28, Jeremy Peltier, 29, and Nathan Scott, 23, have all been changed with three counts of assault along with numerous other charges.
Boulanger has also been charged with possession of a weapon.
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