Amber Alert for missing Ontario girl leads to influx of calls to Winnipeg 911

An emergency Amber Alert about a missing Ontario girl sent to some Winnipeg cellphones late Thursday led to a spike in calls to the city's emergency call centre — many expressing displeasure about receiving the message — that police say tied up Winnipeg's 911 system.

Winnipeg police spokesperson Const. Tammy Skrabek says the influx in calls put lives at risk.

"All of those calls tied up our 911 system, and the problem with that is our 911 system is the central system for all of Winnipeg … so anybody calling with an emergency medical problem during that time frame would not be able to get through," she said Friday.

"It's not appropriate to call 911 unless directed to do so as a result of directly being affected by that alert."

The alert, which went out just after 10:30 p.m. CT, was sent by Peel Regional Police in Ontario after 11-year-old Riya Rajkumar was reported missing. She was believed to be with her father, Roopesh Rajkumar, 41.

The girl's body was found in her father's home in Brampton, Ont., a short time later.

Skrabek said the calls in response in Winnipeg included people confused by the alert, some who wondered if it was a scam, and others who were angry about receiving the message and asked to be removed from the service.

One person even called 911 because they couldn't figure out where the alert's siren sound was coming from within their home, she said.

Skrabek says she understands people may be unfamiliar with the national public alert system, which came into effect last year and sends messages to mobile phones, televisions and radios in the case of imminent safety threats such as tornadoes, floods, Amber Alerts or terrorist threats.

But she hopes Winnipeggers will take a few minutes to look at the next alert sent to their phones to find out if it applies to them before reaching out to local emergency services.

"If we were to get an alert in Winnipeg and they had information that 911 needed to know immediately, we would expect a phone call," she said.

"Otherwise there's other means of fielding those phone calls, whether it's the non-emergency numbers or simply following the directions of what the alert actually says."

Tragic circumstances

Peel Regional Police Const. Danny Marttini said Friday that Riya's mother contacted police on Thursday, saying her daughter hadn't been returned to her at the agreed time of 6:30 p.m. ET.

Riya did not live with her father full time, police said, but had been dropped off around 3 p.m. so he could take her out to celebrate her birthday.

Her mother had received concerning messages from Roopesh Rajkumar, her former boyfriend, that indicated he intended to hurt himself and their daughter.

He was arrested by Ontario Provincial Police on Highway 11 near Orillia, about 130 kilometres north of Brampton, around midnight, after a caller reported seeing the silver Honda Civic described in the Amber Alert.

Police plan to charge Rajkumar with first-degree murder in connection with his daughter's death.

Complaints about the alert

While some of the callers to Winnipeg's 911 call centre complained about receiving an alert about a child missing in Ontario, Skrabek says she's happy the message was sent to such a wide area.

"If people get it and they're not involved? Great, you can continue on with whatever you were doing," she said.

"But if Peel Regional failed to put that out and somehow the child ended up here and in unfortunate circumstances, they would be faulted for not putting it out.

"I think it's always better to err on the side of caution."

Communications officers with Peel police revealed on social media Friday that the force had also received a series of complaints from residents about the Amber Alert being issued at a late hour. 

Peel police media officer Const. Akhil Mooken took to Twitter to express his dismay at the complaints.

"I can't even begin to describe how disappointing and upsetting it is to read the comments, emails and calls to our communications bureau complaining about receiving an Amber Alert late at night," reads his tweet.

"I appreciate that a lot of people were sleeping, but the immediate need to locate the child outweighed the momentary inconvenience that some people encountered.

"Tragically this incident did not have the outcome we were all hoping for but the suspect was located as a direct result of a citizen receiving the alert and calling 911. The system works."