Suspect in weekend shelter-in-place in northern Ont. may be linked to forest fire

A tense armed standoff in the Latchford and Temagami areas ended Sunday. OPP took a 34-year-old man into custody after he exchanged gunfire with officers.

Firefighters with the Ministry of Natural Resources are battling a 10-hectare forest fire near Highway 11 that may be connected to last weekend’s shelter-in-place incident in Latchford, Ont.

A spokesperson for Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit said they received a report linking the fire to the incident and are investigating to determine whether it’s true.

Fire information officer Evan Lizotte said in an email that the blaze is located on the east side of Straight Lake, about 900 metres east of Highway 11 and 650 metres south of Roosevelt Road.

“Air Attack responded to the fire yesterday afternoon,” Lizotte said.

“There are currently three fire ranger crews dedicated to this fire. The fire is not under control.”

Because the suspect in the case was wounded by gunfire during his capture, the investigation has been taken over by the province’s Special Investigations Unit.

When asked whether the suspect in the case started the forest fire, SIU spokesperson Kristy Denette said that “we received initial information about a fire that was connected to the incident.”

“It is not yet determined if it was. This remains under investigation.”

In an interview with CTV News, Latchford Mayor Sharon Gadoury-East said the fire spread quickly because the shelter-in-place incident slowed the response.

“It grew in size pretty quickly yesterday, but unfortunately, you couldn’t get firefighters in there at that time due to the man that was at large,” Gadoury-East said.

“As we speak, there are two waterbombers flying over my house. Every six minutes, they’re picking up water from our Bay Lake and dropping it.”

Her community was under lockdown for much of the weekend as Ontario Provincial Police looked for a suspect described as “armed and dangerous.”

“Officers located the wanted male and officers exchanged gunfire with the individual,” the OPP said in a news release.

“The male was transported to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. An OPP canine was treated for a minor injury.”

Police dog is doing well

The injury to the canine was minor, police said Monday, and he is doing well.

Gadoury-East said life is returning to normal in the community.

“People seem to be kind of calming down a little bit now that the highway is now opened … it was closed until the wee hours of the morning,” she said.

“People seem to be a little more calmer knowing that this is now done, but it’s still been quite an eye-opener for everybody. There are still lots of questions.”

While there was concern, she said the suspect was in an area across a bridge from the community, “so we knew he couldn’t get across to us” without passing through where OPP were set up.

“It was a little harrowing because I know that they had to pull out all cottagers, all campers, out of the bush to just for everybody’s safety,” Gadoury-East said.

“So yeah, it was a little bit harrowing.”

She also thanked emergency responders for their actions in taking the man into custody.

“They put their lives on the line for us and we have to thank them immensely for that.”

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