East end stand off

There’s been a heavy police presence for much of the night in east Hamilton. Police were called to Woodman Drive near Queenston Road at around 6 o’clock this evening for an emotionally disturbed person and they have found that person dead.

Police have just left the scene except for a single vehicle where police initially set up a command unit. As mentioned, they were called to an address on Woodman about 6 o’clock this evening for an emotionally disturbed person. The police emergency response unit in tactical gear were called on scene. Woodman Drive North was blocked off between Queenston and Redwood for several hours.

Police said they made contact with the man initially — but then when they tried to make contact with him again, he was not responding. They broke the door down to his apartment about 10 o’clock this evening and that’s when they found the man deceased.

Inspector Scott Rastin of the Hamilton police:  “At around 6 o’clock tonight, we received a call for a distraught male who had barricaded himself in his house. Our emergency response unit responded. We originally made contact with the male. We tried to negotiate but we lost contact with him. We continued to try to make contact with negative results. Eventually the ERU went into the premises where we discovered a deceased male at this time.”

Speaking to a couple of people who live in the building — they say the man is roughly in his 40’s, he’s lived there for about 9 years and is quiet and normally keeps to himself. They were very upset about what happened here this evening.

The SIU has been called in because police were investigating at the time but they do say that they were not involved in the death. No word on whether the SIU will invoke their mandate.