A councillor for the Chelsea area says residents are still angry and looking for answers after an emergency alert was lifted before the armed man police were looking for had been found.
Pamela Hubley, the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg councillor for District 4, says people were left thinking they were safe when the Alert Ready message was cancelled.
The alert was issued in Lunenburg and Queens counties for a dangerous man with a weapon in the Chelsea area.
It was lifted a few hours later, with RCMP saying there was no longer believed to be a risk to public safety.
But the next morning, police were back in the area after reports of a man with a gun.
RCMP later confirmed he was the same person connected to the alert.
Nova Scotia’s police watchdog, SiRT, says an RCMP officer shot the man. First aid was provided, but he died at the scene.
Hubley says residents deserve to know why the alert was lifted.
“They were told there was no threat. Go back to your normal life,” Hubley said. “It gave them their sense of safety back, only to find out that he was in the area, and he was still armed.”
Hubley says people in Chelsea and the surrounding area have been calling, texting and emailing her with concerns.
She says the message has been consistent: people are angry, disappointed and still afraid.
“I think the residents are owed an explanation,” Hubley said. “Their sense of safety, they were told they were safe. They were not.”
Hubley says she does not want to blame the RCMP officers who were on the ground.
She says the issue is the lack of communication around the alert and what residents were told once it ended.
“For everyone in District 4, including myself, zero communication,” Hubley said. “I cannot stress that enough. Zero.”
In a response to our newsroom, RCMP say officers searched the Chelsea area for several hours using multiple RCMP resources.
Police say incidents involving alerts can change quickly, and risk assessments continue as new information comes in.
RCMP say the alert was ended because, based on the facts gathered at the time, police determined there was no longer an imminent risk to the public.
They also say officers remained in the area as the investigation continued.
RCMP say every use of the Alert Ready system is reviewed after the incident.
Hubley says residents still need to know what was learned and how similar situations will be handled in the future.
She says people in the area also leaned on each other for information while the situation unfolded.
Hubley says social media and local messages helped keep people informed when official updates were limited.
SiRT continues to investigate the police shooting.
