Several schools in Yorkton locked their doors after a report of a man with a gun at a high school in the city Thursday afternoon.
RCMP say they received a report of a man who possibly had a handgun at Yorkton Regional High School around 12:20 p.m.
At the time, many students were gathered outside for the school’s annual car show and shine during the lunch break.
It was initially reported that the man was wearing a shirt as a bandana on his head and that his face might be covered. Witnesses said the man, who was also wearing pyjama pants, started causing trouble.
“I heard he was scratching cars; going into people’s cars and stealing stuff,” said student Nathan Thompson.
Another student, Tanner Krochak-Mak, says he had left his car running outside the school so he could play music. He said he heard the car rev up and when he returned to his vehicle, the masked man was behind the wheel.
“I walked up to him and I pulled him out of the car and told him to get out and then he started running away, so I started following him,” Krochak-Mak said.
“All of a sudden he said ‘look at this’ and he showed the butt-end of a gun. I don’t know if it was a real pistol or not.”
The school initiated its hold-and-secure protocol, in which exterior doors are locked but classes continue as usual and students are able to move freely within the building.
Similar safety protocols were enacted at all elementary schools in Yorkton, as well as at the nearby Melville Comprehensive School.
A short time later, RCMP arrested a male suspect wearing a shirt as a bandana who was walking near the corner of Darlington Street and Victoria Avenue.
Officers also took a man and a woman into custody at a home on the zero block of Third Avenue.
So far, no charges have been laid.
No one was hurt and the safety protocols at the schools were lifted around 3 p.m.
With a report by CTV Yorkton's Katherine Dow
