CALGARY — A 13-year-old boy huddled alone in an office, furtively talking to his mom on the phone, as police just outside the door tried to reason with a former student who was holding a secretary at knifepoint at a Calgary junior high school Thursday.
The young boy was freed two hours later after police negotiators convinced the 25-year-old man to let the woman go in exchange for a bottle of water.
No one was injured.
Duty Insp. Frank Reuser said the boy stayed calm despite the drama unfolding outside the room — all the other students had been evacuated from A.E. Cross school.
The hostage taker was likely not aware that the boy was hiding in the next room, he said.
“That young lad phoned his mother, who then phoned us, we managed to relay information to him to remain in that office very quietly,” he said.
Police were called after a man arrived at the school’s administration office demanding to talk to the principal about a sports injury he suffered in 2000. He held a secretary at knifepoint to force his demand.
Tactical teams descended on the school and the students, who were in an assembly at the time, quickly left the building. Neighbours said the police response was dramatic.
“I saw maybe three cops across the street running into the building,” said Shane Haverland, who lives across the street.
“All of a sudden, two minutes later, all these other cop cars came screaming up.”
Others described police moving in with dogs and battering rams before children began calmly streaming out the doors.
Reuser said a tactical negotiator managed to get in the same room with the man and his hostage and begin talking. It didn’t take much for him to surrender in the end.
“The tactical negotiator, backed up by the negotiating team, managed to negotiate with the suspect to release the hostage in exchange for a bottle of water,” Reuser said.
The hostage, a woman in her late 40s, was not physically hurt, nor was the trapped student.
“She suffered no injuries whatsoever ... although she is emotionally distraught,” Reuser said. “The young lad in the room, he held up very well. He’s quite all right.”
Staff members declined to speak with media about the ordeal and the young boy quickly left in a police car after being reunited with his mother.
The students were taken to nearby Glenbrook elementary school, where their parents were able to pick them up.
Sapphire Lucas, whose 15-year-old daughter Sydney goes to A.E. Cross, wasn’t too worried until she drove by the school and saw police and ambulances standing by. “Until I saw that I was fine,” she said.
Lucas praised the school for its response to the incident, saying staff did “amazingly well” making sure everyone was safe and parents were notified.
Sydney said she was “kind of rattled by everything.”
The students were gathered for a pep rally when the principal came in and told students there was a dangerous man in the building and that they were to go to the field behind the school.
“And then the cops came in and we’re like, ‘the field’s not a safe place. We have to go to Glenbrook. And they wouldn’t tell us anything that happened,” Sydney said. “All they told us that we were safe but there were people in the building that weren’t safe.”
Kevin, who is in Grade 8, said students were listening to a speech by a member of the women’s silver-medal winning Olympics curling team at the time.
He said the ordeal didn’t shake him up very much.
“It’s kind of exciting. It’s definitely my highlight of the year,” he said. An A.E. Cross website says the school has 575 students in Grades 7, 8 and 9.
Reuser said the suspect was taken to a nearby police station where charges were considered.