Medicine Hat Police Service headquarters

By Charles Lefebvre

Police respond to distressed male at Food Bank

Sep 4, 2019 | 10:46 AM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — Medicine Hat police responded to reports of a male in distress at the Medicine Hat Food Bank Wednesday morning.

Officers were called to the scene at approximately 8:45 a.m. after receiving a call about an erratic adult male who was possibly in possession of a weapon.

Police found the male, who appeared highly agitated and verbally aggressive, and quickly removed him from the grounds.

According to police, the man was not found to be possessing any weapons. He is alleged to have been suffering from mental health distress and possibly using street narcotics, a release states.

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“The gentleman we made contact with ended up being compliant, he was clearly under a lot of stress in that moment so there was a bit of deconfliction that took place,” says Staff Sgt. Kelsey Fraser.

The man has since been released from custody, and sent to the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital for mental health evaluation.

“Today is a great example of members who would be going to a weapons call and quickly assessing that this isn’t a weapons call,” says Sgt. Fraser. “This is a person in mental health distress that needs our help and we change gears right away and we work with those folks, so it’s a positive outcome.”

Police say no criminal charges are pending from the incident.