Paul Bickford
Northern News Services

Hay River (Jan 09/06) - A New Year's Day standoff between police and a man armed with a rifle in Hay River ended without a shot being fired.

Just after 3 a.m. on Jan. 1, two RCMP officers were dispatched to a house on 104th Street in Old Town, where the man was threatening to harm himself with the rifle.

The 39-year-old had called police himself.

Cpl. Jim Forsey of the Hay River RCMP declined to say what the man told police.

"I can't make a comment on it," Forsey says. "He initiated contact with the RCMP."

Upon arriving at the scene, police could see a male with a rifle inside the house.

The RCMP, through its telecommunications centre in Yellowknife, contacted the suspect by telephone and spoke to him at length.

The man, described by police as highly emotional and intoxicated, threatened to shoot at them if they approached the house and then turn the firearm on himself.

After about 40 minutes of talking with the police, the man voluntarily put down the rifle, left the residence, and was taken into custody.

A search of the house located a 30-30 calibre rifle, containing one round of ammunition.

A second male, the owner of the house, was also discovered in the residence.

However, Forsey says the other man was asleep and unaware of what had happened.

The arrested man was taken to hospital in Hay River for assessment, including under the Mental Health Act.

He has been charged with careless use of a firearm, and is scheduled to appear in Hay River Territorial Court on Jan. 25.

Forsey says police will not release the man's name since the investigation involves the Mental Health Act.