Motel incident unrelated

Photo: Mike Biden

Penticton RCMP say a large police presence on the south end of the city around the Empire Motel was unrelated to four shooting deaths Monday.

Supt. Ted De Jager says one person has been detained under the Mental Health Act following the incident.

Police initially received reports that someone had barricaded themselves inside the motel and deployed heavily armed officers in response.

“The fact that we had the Emergency Response Team already en route, it was something that we decided to deploy them at that in the circumstances and information we had at that point,” De Jager said.

While police originally described the motel incident as a “standoff,” De Jager said “the information that we had that precipitated that was completely false.”

He stressed that the Empire Motel incident was completely unrelated to the four fatal shootings earlier Monday.