Calgary police arrest one person after bank ‘disturbance’ on 17 Ave SW

One person has been taken into custody after Calgary police were called to a “disturbance” at a bank in the Beltline Friday morning.

Staff Sgt. Becky Spohr says it happened at the CIBC near the intersection of 17 Avenue SW and 11 Street SW around 9:40 a.m. when a man went into the bank.

“Once inside the bank he started causing some property damage and making a lot of vulgar kind of comments,” Spohr said. “He then proceeded to escalate and made some threats to the patrons and the employees of the bank.”

She adds the man threatened to get a gun from his vehicle, at which point several people either ran away from the bank or hid in a locked room. The man left the bank and when he came back, police say everyone was safe.

It’s unclear if the man had a gun or a weapon of any kind.

“He continued to hang out in the bank for a while, eventually we were able to talk him out of the bank and safely take him into custody,” she said.

Spohr adds there were seven employees in the bank at the time. However, it’s unclear how many customers were there.

She says it was a “high risk” situation, and therefore a large number of heavily armed officers responded to the area, including an armoured police vehicle.

An armoured police vehicle on 17 Avenue SW. (Logan Stein, CityNews)

A portion of 17 Avenue SW was blocked off for hours as police redirected traffic away from surrounding streets.

The majority of officers that responded to the bank were there for pedestrian and traffic management, according to police.

While a negotiator was brought in, the man left the bank willingly and was arrested before they were needed.

https://twitter.com/CalgaryPolice/status/1601283371690516482

No injuries have been reported.

Listen to CityNews 660 for traffic updates every 10 minutes on the ones. You can also follow us on Twitter @CityNews660 or subscribe to breaking news alerts sent directly to your inbox.