Police surround Balcarres home, arrest man who broke in while occupants sleeping
An armed Regina man who is wanted by Calgary police for assault broke into two homes in Saskatchewan late Thursday night, before finally surrendering to police, according to an account provided by the File Hills First Nations Police Service.
The 23-year-old man emerged from a home in Balcarres, Sask., in which small children had slept peacefully while the man sat and spoke on a phone on a nearby couch.
The man faces several charges of assault, breaking and entering, vehicle theft and possession of prohibited weapons. More charges are expected. He is currently in custody and scheduled to appear in court in Fort Qu'Appelle on Monday.
Later, police found a sawed-off rifle, bear spray and a knife inside the home and under the very couch where the man had apparently been sitting.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
"This could have turned out very badly but thankfully no one — police, the victims or the suspect — were seriously injured," said Lennard Busch, File Hills police Chief, in the news release.
Busch also suggested the man's behaviour was linked to gang activity.
"Incidents like this seem to be coming all too common and it impresses upon us the need for more community safety planning, anti-gang strategies resources and education," he said.
Gun pulled on husband
The incident began after 11 p.m. CST Wednesday after a woman living on the Peepeekisis Cree Nation made a 911 call claiming the man — who police say was accompanied by two other suspects — had pulled a gun on her husband inside the home.
The community is located about 100 kilometres northeast of Regina.
After an altercation with an unspecified member of the home, the three men fled in different directions on foot after the stolen van they had arrived in failed to start.
Members with File Hills Police and the Fort Qu'Appelle RCMP detachment responded to the incident.
Off to Balcarres
An RCMP police dog helped police track the gun-pulling man to another house, but the man allegedly stole another vehicle.
That vehicle was then tracked to a third home. Police later learned an occupant of that home had taken the man and dropped him off in Balcarres, located about 20 kilometres west of the Peepeekisis Cree Nation.
Later in Balcarres, police spotted a vehicle idling on Main Street. Police say the occupants of that vehicle had been phoned by the man and were waiting on Main Street to pick the man up.
Police traced that call back to a home in Balcarres, which they surrounded.
That's when the man exited the home and surrendered to police.
Children 'unaware' of home intruder
"It was determined that the people sleeping in the house were unaware that they had an intruder, and he was unknown to them," according to the press release.
"Some small children had been sleeping nearby but had never awakened."
The arrested man is listed as being from both Regina and Yorkton. He has had numerous run-ins with the police, including assaults, breaking and entering, theft and weapons charges.
The man, in addition to being wanted for assault by the Calgary Police Service, was also under restrictions not to possess weapons or use alcohol or any other intoxicating substances.
Home invasions a prior concern
The other two suspects who police say broke into the first home alongside the arrested man are believed to have fled Peepeekisis Cree Nation in another stolen vehicle.
It's not the first time something like this has happened in the community.
In a March 2016 home invasion, a man was shot by an intruder, prompting a local school to be locked down and an emergency community meeting to be called.
