Police make arrests after lockdown at CEGEP Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu

A 19-year-old man wearing a bulletproof vest and a girl under the age of 18 were arrested Friday after CEGEP Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, south of Montreal, was ordered to lock down.

There were no reports of injuries or gunfire, Sgt. Jeremie Levesque with the police of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., told reporters. He said police were conducting a controlled evacuation of the college, located about 40 kilometres south of Montreal.

Levesque said police arrested a man wearing a “bulletproof vest’,’ but would not confirm whether the suspect was enrolled at the college.

Police received a call around 9:40 a.m. about a man acting suspiciously on campus. They arrived at the college and arrested a 19-year-old man and a girl Levesque described as a “minor.” Levesque said it was the man’s clothing that was particularly alarming. Videos circulating online showed that the arrests occurred outside the college in what looked like a parking lot.

The college ordered students and staff to barricade themselves into closed rooms and to keep the lights off at the behest of the police department. Police established a security perimeter around the college and restricted access to the school.

Annie Metivier, an interior design technician at the college, said that she and four others, a colleague and three students, have been barricaded and hiding in her darkened office since about 9:15 a.m.

“I’m still barricaded, and we don’t know anything? We’re following the information on social media and from our friends outside,” said Metivier in an exchange through Facebook Messenger.

“We are five in my office at the moment, and we turned off the lights because that was what we were instructed to do.”

Police spokeswoman Const. Barbara-Ann Dion said officers were searching the campus room by room.

Metivier said she wanted the police operation to be over.

“We’re fine yes ? stressed but it’s fine. We just can’t wait for all of this to end,” she said. “I saw the police with their guns next to my office because I had to go back and lock a door that a teacher had unlocked adjacent to my office. They told me to ‘hurry, hurry up and lock yourself in’? Seeing the police with their weapons ready to shoot? It increases the stress.”

Earlier Friday, Nathalie Beaudoin, the college’s director general, said in a statement that parents, students and others should stay away from the school, adding that all activities for the day were cancelled.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 11, 2022.