One man is in police custody, downtown traffic/LRT disruptions

Shots were fired, and a Molotov cocktail was thrown at City Hall on Tuesday morning, just six blocks away from MacEwan’s downtown campus. 

As of 12:08 p.m., one man is in custody while police continue to sweep the building. No injuries have been reported. 

EPS spokesperson Cheryl Voordenhout confirms that City Hall remains on lockdown and nearby roads have been blocked off. People are advised to stay clear of City Hall and Churchill Square. There will be temporary LRT service disruptions at Churchill Station. 

City councillors were either in a meeting or office when the evacuation call came in around 10:30 this morning. Police announced an investigation of a weapons complaint at 11:05 a.m. 

There have been no security updates or announcements from MacEwan regarding the event. The Griff has reached out to MacEwan for comment. According to a source from MacEwan’s security services, a lengthy process goes into approving and sending security messages.

Aidan, a psychology student at MacEwan, had no idea about the attacks until speaking with The Griff nearly four hours after the story broke.

“That just makes me feel very unsafe within downtown,” she said. “I’m a little confused on why nobody’s really talked about it or said anything about it. But also, I don’t really go on my phone during school. So that’s probably why I haven’t heard about it.”

MacEwan nursing student Oyinda Eniola also had no idea about the attack and said she plans to head home right at 4 p.m. — before it gets dark. 

While MacEwan has confirmed they were aware of and monitoring the situation, the university opted not to alert students via the SAFE@MacEwan app, stating that it is only used in “urgent safety situations that require immediate attention because they have the potential to result in serious harm to people, cause substantial damage to property or disrupt usual university activity.”

Eniola was concerned that she wasn’t notified of the attack. “We’re not alerted about it, like, ‘Hey, you’re going out. You’re taking the bus. Watch out for your safety because this incident happened.’”

Police Chief Dale McFee will provide an update today at 4 p.m.

This is a developing story. Further updates will be provided as the event unfolds. With files from David Slater. Photography provided by Zach Dafoe.