Incident on Calgary's Reconciliation Bridge comes to safe resolution
Nearly 20 hours after a man climbed and remained perched on top of the Reconciliation Bridge in downtown Calgary, the situation came to a peaceful resolution.
Just before 6 p.m. Thursday, police say after hours of negotiation and with the help of the Calgary Fire Department, officers were able to successfully negotiate with the man.
He was voluntarily taken down to safety.
He was then escorted by police to a waiting ambulance and transported to hospital.
Police were first called to the Reconciliation Bridge around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday.
The Fourth and Fifth Avenue fly overs – one of the main arteries into the downtown core – were shut down for a police command centre on the bridge.
By 10 a.m., the Fifth Avenue fly over reopened, but drivers were still being told to try alternate routes to get into the downtown core until the situation was fully resolved.
EMS as well as the Calgary Fire Department were also at the scene.
The shutdowns impacted thousands of drivers.
Traffic was bumper-to-bumper on Edmonton Trail, there were major slowdowns along sections of Memorial Drive and buses were forced to detour their routes.
"It's a big mess, you know? They've got it all blocked off and people coming this way, they have to turn around and find different routes to get in and out of here," said witness John Harris.
"I noticed that both Edmonton Trail and Centre Street were backed up kind of all the way to my house in Renfrew, so (I) quickly turned my car around, hopped on my bike and went downtown that way," said Phillip Meintzer.
Calgary police closed Reconciliation Bridge, the Fourth Avenue flyover and the Fifth Avenue flyover on Thursday, March 28, 2024.
The remaining flyover was reopened after the man was down.
"We recognize that this incident significantly impacted access for many Calgarians commuting into the downtown area for work, accessing their homes and local businesses, while also causing several delays in the surrounding areas," police said in a release issued Thursday evening.
"We appreciate the public's patience as emergency crews worked tirelessly to ensure the safety of all involved.
"We would also like to thank our partners at the Calgary Fire Department, the City of Calgary, and Alberta Health Services for aiding us in bringing a safe resolution to this incident."
Calgary police say the man involved had suffered a mental-health crisis when he climbed the bridge.
The investigation is ongoing and police say charges may be pending.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
Triple murder or manslaughter? Sudbury jury deliberating fate of man responsible for fatal firebombing
After a lengthy series of instructions from Justice Dan Cornell, a Sudbury jury is deliberating whether to find a suspect guilty of three counts of manslaughter or three counts of murder.
President Joe Biden calls Japan and India 'xenophobic' nations that do not welcome immigrants
President Joe Biden has called Japan and India “xenophobic” countries that do not welcome immigrants, lumping the two with adversaries China and Russia as he tried to explain their economic circumstances and contrasted the four with the U.S. on immigration.