Students returning from a high school field trip saw a man waving a gun in his vehicle and alerted police, which led to a tense arrest in Davis Bay on April 16 shortly after 5 p.m.
“Police located the suspect vehicle and conducted a high-risk takedown in Davis Bay. The male driver of the van was arrested for possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, and the female passenger was also briefly taken into custody. Both were from the Powell River area,” said Sunshine Coast RCMP Const. Harrison Mohr.
Upon inspection, the weapon seen by students was found to be a pellet gun.
“The driver was held for a bail hearing the following day and was later released from custody. No charges have been laid; however, police are still investigating the incident,” Mohr said.
The RCMP are praising students for doing the right thing by calling in the threat and reminding everyone of the dangers of brandishing fake firearms in public.
“Once it was confirmed it was a pellet gun, one of our officers boarded the school bus and reassured the children that the suspect had been arrested and they were not in any danger. This was a thoughtless act on the part of the suspect, and we would like to remind everyone that toy guns and pellet guns can be mistaken as real firearms by the public or police and should not be carried or used in public places,” Mohr said.
“The children on the bus did a great job of remaining calm and helped the bus driver to get the licence plate and description of the vehicle to pass on to police.”
School District No. 46 superintendent of schools Patrick Bocking said he was pleased with the response by the RCMP and noted the incident was a good teaching opportunity.
“It was great the way the RCMP acted with the students and gave them the full level of support in terms of respecting them as having reported the crime,” Bocking said.
“Everyone felt very supported, so they did a wonderful job, as did our teacher.”
Bocking said the incident will help students think twice before bringing a pellet gun or some other kind of fake weapon to school in the future.
“Many wouldn’t think necessarily that’s a problem, but it is, and now they know that,” he said.
Mohr added students received “an unexpected lesson on how to observe and report information to police,” which was valuable.
“This will be one field trip they won’t soon forget,” he said.
