Family play turns to panic after gun spotted at trampoline park

Panic at Trampoline Park over apparent gun A family recounts a terrifying experience of spotting a man with what looked like a gun at a Winnipeg trampoline park.

A family outing took a terrifying turn for a Winnipeg teen Thursday night, after a person with what looked like a gun entered a business in the St. James area.

Izabella Raven was at Flying Squirrel Amusement Park with her mom and sisters when the chaos unfolded.

Raven said it was her first time at the trampoline park and she’d enjoyed an hour of fun with her sisters, when they received a warning that turned their play to panic.

“The employees came up to us and told us there was a person with a gun outside the building. He came in the building,” said Raven.

The reaction was immediately according to Raven, who said a number of a people ran towards another room.

“We saw all these little kids crying; it was kind of scary,” said Raven.

Raven said staff at Flying Squirrel were quick to corral all the customers into a corner area, and locked down the building once the man ran out.

“They did an excellent job, they responded really quickly and called the police,” said Raven.

In a statement to CTV News, the chief operating officer of Flying Squirrel Sports wrote:

“My staff responded immediately by contacting authorities within two minutes of the suspect entering the building. The suspect quickly left the building and the facility was secured immediately. Flying Squirrel Sports has policies and procedures that are mandatory to follow in case of emergency situations. The Winnipeg staff reacted immediately and we want to thank the local authorities for responding in a timely fashion. “

Const. Rob Carver with the Winnipeg Police Service told CTV News the incident happened around 7 p.m. Thursday.

“We received numerous calls there was an individual supposedly armed with a gun in the 1200 block of St. James,” said Carver.

“Just to be specific, it was a long gun. So we don’t know rifle, shotgun. And of course we don’t know if it was a real gun, or replica or airsoft,” said Carver.

Carver said the suspect was gone before officers arrived, and that no shots were fired and no one was injured.

Police said they didn’t believe the incident was an attempted robbery, but couldn’t share more on possible motives with an investigation by the Major Crimes Unit underway.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police.