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False alarm at Stittsville school after student likely mistook pipe for rifle: Ottawa police

Police said Monday they've made an arrest in connection with a hate-motivated assault in the city in late May. Nick Westoll / File / Global News

Reports of a possible gunman at a Stittsville school on Thursday were likely tied to a student mistaking a construction worker’s pipe for a rifle, police said Friday.

Paul-Desmarais French catholic high school on Abbott Street East went into “safe school mode” on Thursday after police received a call just before noon about a person possibly carrying a gun in the area.

A student had told a teacher that morning that he saw what he thought was a man holding a rifle on a rooftop near the school, according to a police statement to Global News.

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Officers searched the area but found no threat.

After speaking to the student, the sole witness in the incident, police said it’s likely he saw a construction worker holding a pipe.

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Officers ultimately concluded the incident was “unfounded.”

The safety measures at Paul-Desmarais were lifted shortly afterwards.

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