RCMP fugitive arrested in Edmonton
Acting on a tip, police in Edmonton on Friday captured Emrah Bulatci, the man charged with the first-degree murder of a N.W.T. Mountie.
Bulatci, 23, surrendered peacefully at a home in west Edmonton at about 5 p.m. MT after seven days on the run, walking out of the front door without a shirt and with his hands above his head.
Surrounded by heavily armed tactical officers, Bulatci was handcuffed and taken to hospital in an ambulance escorted by a dozen police cars. The extent of his condition was unclear.
"He's a gentleman who's been on the run for several days. I don't know what his condition is," Alberta RCMP chief superintendent Fred Kamins said at a news conference in Edmonton.
Kamins also expressed a "sense of relief" that the massive manhunt which employed hundreds of officers in the North and western Canada was now over.
"I felt relieved … because no more of our officers were injured," he said.
RCMP Const. Christopher Worden, 30, was found shot to death Saturday morning after he responded to a call alone in the town of Hay River, N.W.T.
Investigators will be looking at how much help Bulatci may have had in evading authorities for a week and if any charges of aiding and abetting are merited.
"We had a lot of people looking for him. I'd be surprised if someone could do that by himself," Kamins said.
The arrest comes after a police operation that lasted several hours. Tactical teams and an armoured vehicle moved in Friday morning around a home and blocked off several blocks in the residential area.
An elementary school that had been locked down for most of the day was evacuated in the afternoon.
Two people emerged from the house and were taken into custody for questioning. Loud bangs were later heard at the home as police set off flash-bang devices that create blinding and thunderous, yet ultimately harmless, explosions.
The arrest is the culmination of a series of operations and raids this week.
On Thursday, police surrounded a home in Edmonton for nine hours, but the subsequent raid turned up no sign of the suspect. However, two people were taken in for questioning.
Police also searched other locations in Edmonton and the northern town of High Level, Alta. where Bulatci grew up.
Bulatci's girlfriend speaks
In an exclusive interview with CBC News, Bulatci's girlfriend said she doesn't believe he is capable of the charge against him.
Sara McAuley, 19, said she and Bulatci were living together at her mother's home in St. Albert, north of Edmonton, as recently as last week. The couple have a three-month-old baby girl.
McAuley said she can't stop thinking of Worden's wife and eight-month-old daughter.
"I pray for them all the time," McAuley said Thursday night. "That's a horrible thing that they must be going through. I can't imagine how sad they must be, but they're constantly in me and my family's prayers every day."
Worden, a married father of an eight-month-old daughter, will be given a regimental funeral in Ottawa on Monday.