One dead and 15 in custody after RCMP respond to recent Prairies border crossings
The incidents occurred around Coutts, Alta., and Emerson, Man.
The RCMP have released details on three incidents along the Canada-U.S. border officers responded to in recent weeks. The incidents involved 16 attempted border crossings and one death.
Police held a news conference in Edmonton on Wednesday to provide information about two border crossings in Coutts, Alta., earlier this week, and one crossing 15 kilometres east of Emerson, Man., a few weeks earlier.
On Tuesday morning, a man crossing the border into Coutts was referred to a secondary inspection area, from which he fled. After the driver was located near Raymond, Alta., about 80 kilometres north of Coutts, he kept driving north to Lethbridge, before heading back to Raymond where he was seen holding a gun, police said.
RCMP then used a tire deflation device to stop the man's vehicle south of Milk River, Alta., close to where the chase began in Coutts. The man then fled on foot, where he was pursued by police. During the pursuit, the man shot himself and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team is now investigating the incident, police said.
The day before, on Monday morning, RCMP were notified by the U.S. Border Patrol about a potential crossing near Coutts. Officers found a large group of people, four adults and five children, who were travelling on foot in bitterly cold weather. The nine people were arrested under the Customs Act and handed over to the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA).
Officers also discussed a Jan. 14 crossing near Emerson, Man., where an RCMP border patrol plane equipped with thermal imaging located a group of six people and directed ground units to the location.
Police on the ground searched the nearby woods where the group had fled and arrested them without incident. The six people were handed over to CBSA custody.
In this case, police noted that the people found crossing the border were not dressed for the cold winter weather.
In all three of the incidents, RCMP said the weather ranged between –20 and –30 C, without accounting for wind chill.
Assistant commissioner Lisa Moreland, the RCMP's regional commander of federal policing in the Northwest region, noted the danger faced by people illegally crossing the border from the U.S. into Canada.
"To anyone who is thinking about crossing the border, don't. You are putting your life at risk and you should not attempt under any circumstances," Moreland said on Wednesday.
The police announcement came just days after increased security at the Canada-U.S. border played a part in delaying announced tariffs between the two countries.
On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reiterated the country's intent to move forward with a previously announced $1.3-billion border security plan.
The suite of new measures includes outfitting the RCMP with helicopters, drones and mobile surveillance towers, and creating a new "Canada-U.S. Joint Strike Force" targeting organized crime.
On the same day, previously announced U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods were delayed for a month.
Border security has been a hot-button issue in recent months as U.S. President Donald Trump has criticized the flow of illegal migrants and fentanyl from Canada into the U.S. But the incidents the RCMP discussed on Wednesday involved irregular border crossings moving in the other direction.
Police added that none of the three border crossings discussed on Wednesday involved fentanyl.
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