Police Hunting Mall Spray Suspect
Monday, July 16, 2012 @ 4:33 AM
Prince George, B.C. – Prince George RCMP will be going over video surveillance from security cameras at Pine Centre Mall to see if they can identify the person responsible for emptying the mall Sunday afternoon.
Police and fire crews were dispatched to the mall at approximately 12:15 Sunday afternoon to respond to reports of a 
noxious substance in the air in the corridor outside one of the stores. Linda Daniels, manager of the Ben Moss Jewellers outlet, says two women came running towards her store from the direction of Sears, complaining that they were having trouble breathing.
noxious substance in the air in the corridor outside one of the stores. Linda Daniels, manager of the Ben Moss Jewellers outlet, says two women came running towards her store from the direction of Sears, complaining that they were having trouble breathing.
According to a police officer on hand, mall security swung into action and located a can of either bear or pepper spray in a garbage bin down the centre of the corridor adjacent to the Bluenotes store. The can, which had somehow been locked into the “open” position, was removed from the premises, but not before the air had been contaminated.
As a precautionary measure, the entire mall was ordered evacuated at about 12:40pm to allow the building to be ventilated. Customers and store clerks alike headed to the various exits to wait for the order to be lifted. That occurred at 1:15pm.
There is no information that anyone had to be taken to hospital suffering the effects of the spray.
Police say they don’t know whether the incident was intentional or unintentional, or what the purpose may have been. The officer on hand says it appears “someone decided to ruin everyone’s day.”
Comments
Says Sherlock Holmes: “Methinks there are too many ‘coincidences’ for this act to not have been intentional, Watson!”
Well, number of stores, with wage loss and revenue loss. Hmmmmm. I would say someones practical joke is going to cost them a $100,000.00
I bet its not that funny any more.
What is surprising is how long it took for someone to call the evacuation of the mall.
I was there with my family when this happened. I was outside of Coles and people were walking towards us saying not to go down towards that part of the mall as someone had let off pepper spray.
It was irritating our noses and throats at that distance so we headed to the Zellers end of the mall.
We did some shopping in two stores down there (at least 30 minutes) before the message to leave the mall came over the PA system.
Comments for this article are closed.