An emergency alert has been cancelled and the suspect arrested after police say a car was shot in Central Onslow early Friday morning.
The alert was issued shortly after 9 a.m. in the Cumberland, Colchester and East Hants areas and was cancelled just after 12:30 p.m.
In a tweet, the RCMP said 37-year-old suspect was arrested in Londonderry.
“We thank the public for their cooperation, shares and retweets on social media,” it said.
RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Chris Marshall told Global News a second person involved in the incident, a 39-year-old man, was arrested in Onslow. Marshall did not say how the man was allegedly involved.
Earlier Friday, Marshall said police received a report at 12:30 a.m. from someone who was driving on Highway 2 in Central Onslow when they slowed down to help another driver who appeared to be having difficulty.
Marshall said the person heard what they thought was a paintball gun being shot and reported it to police.
A few hours later, Marshall said the person called back to say they had a bullet in the back of their truck, indicating it was a real gun and not a paintball gun.
“From that point, obviously, that changes things. We would go from basically mischief to a firearms-related call,” he said. “The other person wasn’t injured, thankfully.”
Marshall could not say if the suspect and the victim were known to each other.
“We don’t have any information to say it was targeted, we also don’t have any information to say that it was random,” he said.
“The incident itself appears to be random — we’re dealing with someone who just slowed down for another vehicle — but both people are from those communities, so we don’t know for sure.”
Second emergency alert
This was the second emergency alert that was issued in as many days in Nova Scotia.
In a release about a separate incident, the RCMP said officers received a report of a “distressed man” at a home on Greenborough Crescent in Cole Harbour. It said the 52-year-old armed himself with a knife in the presence of a woman and youth known to him and was threatening to harm himself.
It said the armed man left the residence on foot with “what are believed to be self-inflicted wounds” and police began searching the area.
An emergency alert was issued a short time later after officers received a report of a break-and-enter at a nearby residence, which they believed the man was involved in.
“At approximately 9:30 p.m., officers located the man on a nearby frozen lake and began providing first aid,” the release said.
“The man, who was suffering from exposure and self-inflicted wounds was transported to hospital by EHS.”
The man died from his injuries shortly after midnight, it said.
Halifax district RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Guillaume Tremblay said the matter was referred to the Serious Incident Response Team, but he was not aware if SIRT will proceed with an investigation.