North

Igloolik man in stable condition in Ottawa after another RCMP shooting

A call about a 'mentally distraught individual armed with a knife' ended with shots fired, and a 25-year-old man medevaced to Ottawa.

Police were responding to a 'mentally distraught individual armed with a knife'

Igloolik, pop. 1,900, lies on an island in Foxe Basin. (CBC)

A 25-year-old man is in stable condition in Ottawa after he was shot by police following a three-hour effort to de-escalate a tense situation.

Police in Igloolik, Nunavut, received a call about a "mentally distraught individual armed with a knife" around 5 p.m. Thursday, according to a news release.

When police arrived, the man barricaded himself inside a home. Police say they negotiated for three hours before shots were fired.

Three men have been shot to death by police in Nunavut since December of 2016, including one in Hall Beach — about 70 kilometres south of Igloolik — in which the victim broadcast on Facebook live that he wanted to "die by police." 

Those incidents were followed by three more incidents — in Resolute, Cambridge Bay and Taloyoak — in which police noted their de-escalation techniques.

Last fall, an inquest was held into the death of Felix Taqqaugaq, who was 30 years old when he was shot by police in Igloolik in 2012.

Ottawa Police Services have been asked to conduct an independent investigation into the most recent incident, though some in Nunavut have argued that's inadequate.