Calgary police briefly issue shelter-in-place order at Mount Royal University

“Pretty scary.”

That’s how Ahmar Khan, a student at Mount Royal University, described the scene Monday afternoon when Calgary police issued a “shelter in place” order after receiving reports of a man with a weapon spotted on campus.

“All of a sudden you’ve got cops coming in and we don’t know who the suspect is — you never see this on campus here — these big guns, they’re walking in, they didn’t tell us nothing,” said Khan.

Calgary police issued the shelter-in-place order around 2:45 p.m. Monday after officers were called out to the university and interviewed witnesses who reported seeing the man carrying a large knife.

Kyla Isidro, an MRU student, said she was in the Arts Building on campus when she got an email from the university.

“(It) described the person as a male and the details of what this person was wearing. It was a bit unclear about what happened but when we went out of the hallway the Calgary Police Service was there.”

“It didn’t specify whether there was a weapon with the person, it just gave us a brief description of what the person was wearing,” said Isidro.

Police lifted the shelter in place order just over two hours later after officers — who were in the process of clearing the scene — received information that identified the person as a staff member who was working as a chef for the university.

Police said one person was taken into custody and charges may be laid.

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