Winnipeg building evacuated, man arrested after allegedly threatening police online

A Winnipeg apartment building was evacuated Friday night as police investigated threatening online activity.

Residents were evacuated from the apartment building on Cumberland Avenue near Carlton Street.

Officers attended the residence of a man who allegedly posted online threatening to harm himself and police.

“I was just at my house having a nice meal,” recounted building resident Boluwatife Akinjogbin. “Then I had some noises outside my apartment and then I heard a knock and a police officer came and he was whispering. He said I need to evacuate. There’s some stuff going on outside, and I had to leave.

“My thoughts during the whole thing was I got to move.”

Akinjogbin says he saw around 10 police officers as he was exiting the apartment floor. He says was lucky to have a friend who also lived in a different part of the building to stay with for the time he had to be out of his unit.

Officers placed the suspect under arrest once residents were safely evacuated.

“About 20 minutes later, I came back upstairs to just see if they had gone,” said Akinjogbin. “But what I saw was like a scene out of a movie. I saw just one person. He was handcuffed and he was just on one side and all the other police officers were on the other side, that kind of stuff. So clearly stuff was still going down.”

Winnipeg man Boluwatife Akinjogbin on Jan. 7, 2023. (Credit: CityNews/Temi Olantunde)

Akinjogbin says he returned moments later and was finally able to enter his unit, although police remained on scene.

“At 11 p.m. from like 7 p.m. So they were there for a while. At that time I could get into my apartment.”

Akinjogbin says the man he had seen in handcuffs didn’t come out much and wasn’t someone he was familiar with. He says police had recently made frequent visits to the residence.

“There had been a lot of calls,” he said. “Police had been coming there very like in a lot in recent times to that apartment.

“They would try to come and he wouldn’t open the door.”

The suspect was medically cleared by paramedics on scene as a taser was deployed before the arrest. A 35-year-old faces charges of uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm, and mischief under $5,000. He was detained in police custody.