A male student was arrested Friday for threats he allegedly made towards Ste. Anne Collegiate.
Ste. Anne Police Chief Marc Robichaud says earlier today, his department was notified that there had been threats made through a text messaging system, which made their way to Winnipeg Police.
"We were notified that there was potentially somebody threatening to be an active shooter here in Ste. Anne," says Robichaud. "So officers responded to all the schools in Ste. Anne immediately and locked them down."
Robichaud says with help from Winnipeg Police, they were able to identify the student who had made the threats.
"It appears that it was a hoax," he says. "But we're not treating it that way."
According to Robichaud, it was a student from Ste. Anne Collegiate who made the threat.
"The male has been arrested and is going to be charged with potentially uttering threats or public mischief, something along those lines," he explains. "But certainly there is going to be ramifications from it."
Robichaud says police take all threats, including this one, very serious. He notes they immediately dispatched four officers to the schools upon hearing the news.
"You would never want to take something like this as being potentially nothing," he says. "We take this very, very seriously and our response to it is every single time like it's a real thing and potentially happening as we speak. So we go there expecting there to be something."
Robichaud says it was a great job done by all. He notes there was no panic at the schools when officers arrived.
"This was a situation where we had to go there, assess what was going on and make a determination around our next investigative steps," he explains. "And whether a prolonged lockdown of the school would have been something that was required. So every time you get a call like this, there's a whole bunch of mitigating factors that you look at to determine what's our response going to be."
According to Robichaud, by Friday at 2 pm, the situation was such that the lockdown could be lifted at all schools.