Sarah Holland
Northern News Services

NNSL (Sep 17/99) - A suicidal woman was apprehended by the emergency response team Wednesday after barricading herself in her apartment building.

The woman had placed a call to Stanton Regional Hospital at around 4 p.m., and as hospital personnel were unable to convince her to travel to the hospital, the RCMP were advised of the situation.

Although the woman, who was alone, did not make any specific threats, she did indicate she had access to a firearm and would use it.

The building, located at 51 Ave. and 52 St. houses both the Union of Northern Workers office as well as apartments. Police immediately evacuated the building and roads surrounding the area were blocked off.

At the scene were plainclothes and uniformed officers, a negotiator and the emergency response team.

The negotiator, whose name is not being released by police, spoke to the woman by telephone and at about 6:15 p.m., the woman voluntarily emerged from the building where she was immediately taken to Stanton Hospital by the emergency response team.

"Once the person goes to the hospital, the situation is out of our hands unless we are pressing criminal charges or hospital staff asks us to stay around," Const. Denise Potvin said Thursday.

"But usually the medical staff will do an assessment to see how suicidal the person is and if they need to be admitted to the hospital or need counselling."

At this time, no charges are being laid, no one was injured in the incident. Police have yet to report if a firearm was indeed found at the scene.