Yukon RCMP arrested a man Monday inside the Whitehorse airport.
Whitehorse RCMP received an anonymous 911 call at 4:15 p.m. that there was a man in the arrivals area at the Erik Nielsen International Airport with a handgun tucked in the waistband of his pants, according to Cpl. Natasha Dunmall.
Officers, including a police service dog, came to the airport and spotted the suspect.
Officers were in hard body armour and carried rifles.
The suspect in this case followed all of the officers’ instructions, police say.
He was instructed to lie on the ground. He was arrested without a problem.
Dunmall said that when the officers searched the man they did not find a gun in his waistband, but did find a knife in his pocket.
Eleven grams of crack cocaine was also located on him, she said.
She didn’t have any information on what type of knife it was.
After the man was taken into custody, officers and the dog searched the area but did not find any gun.
The whole incident took about an hour, Dunmall said. It doesn’t appear any flights were affected, she said.
“Having a tactical response in a public setting such as the airport is always dynamic. The responding officers were able to quickly and effectively assess the situation, locate and arrest the male while maintaining public safety.”
Gerrit Houben-Szabo, 27, was scheduled to appear in territorial court yesterday on a charge of possession for the purpose of trafficking.
(Ashley Joannou)