Christmas Eve visitor to northern Manitoba hospital chapel points rifle at staff, blows hole in window
Suspect in Thompson arrested without incident, charged with numerous weapons offences, RCMP says
A Christmas Eve visitor to a hospital chapel in a Thompson, Man. is in RCMP custody after he pointed a rifle at staff and shot a hole in a window, Mounties say.
Just after 4 p.m. on Dec. 24, staff at Thompson General Hospital, a 79-bed health-care facility in Manitoba's sixth-largest city, called the RCMP about an unknown man in possession of a firearm inside the hospital's chapel.
The suspect pointed a .22 calibre rifle at staff and discharged the gun through a window, said RCMP Sgt. Paul Manaigre, the media relations officer for the Mounties in Manitoba.
Hospital security staff were able to recover the rifle without incident, according to Manaigre.
Police then arrived and arrested the suspect, a 33-year-old resident of Thompson, a city of 13,000 located about 650 kilometres north of Winnipeg.
No one was injured in the incident, Manaigre said.
The suspect has been charged with numerous weapons offences, including the reckless discharge of a firearm, said Manaigre.
He said he couldn't recall a firearms incident ever occurring in a hospital chapel, let alone on Christmas Eve.
Manitoba's northern health region, which operates Thompson General Hospital, has no comment, spokesperson Sara Pawlachuk said.
The Manitoba nurses' union said it is aware of the firearms discharge at the hospital.
Doctors Manitoba said in a statement it is distressed to hear of a gun being brandished in a hospital. Spokesperson Keir Johnson said roughly one third of Manitoba doctors reported a safety incident during the previous year.