Police took the rare step of closing Hwy. 401 near London in both directions Sunday afternoon as one witness described seeing heavily armed officers at a pair of nearby intersections in the city’s southeast end.
It was just after 4:30 p.m. on Sunday when Ontario Provincial Police announced the westbound and eastbound lanes of the 401 between Highbury Avenue and Westchester Bourne were closed “due to an ongoing police investigation.”
Meanwhile, London police said at about 4:30 p.m. they had a drone flying in the area of Old Victoria Road and Hwy. 401 – near the city’s southeastern edge – “for an ongoing investigation.” A city police spokesperson says officers, including the emergency response unit, were called to the area at about 4:40 p.m. for a “weapons investigation.”
The officers “cleared the area and confirmed there was no threat to public safety,” the London police spokesperson said, adding no one had been arrested as of Monday morning.
By shortly after 5 p.m., lanes in both directions of the 401 had re-opened, Ontario Provincial Police said.
Jaymie Crook is a former police officer who owns Country Paws, a dog-boarding business on Wilton Grove Road. He said it was about 1 p.m. Sunday when he encountered a large police presence at Old Victoria Road and Discovery Drive. He said he then spotted a similar police presence at Old Victoria and Wilton Grove Road.
Crook said he recognized it as a “heavy weapons response” by police. Combined with social-media speculation that nearby residents had been told to shelter in place – Crook didn’t directly receive any such warning – he instructed staff at Country Paws to stop walking pets and remain indoors for a period, he said.
Teens charged after bomb threat halts Via train
Three teens face charges after a fake bomb threat halted a Via Rail train before it reached Chatham’s Queen Street Station, police there say.
An anonymous 911 call just before 9 p.m. on Jan. 1 claimed there was a bomb on a Via train bound for Chatham, said police.
911 operators determined the caller was on the westbound Via train, police said. Officers boarded after the train was stopped near Sass Road and Colborne Street in Chatham.
Officers located the caller, determined the bomb threat was false and had been called in as a joke, police said. Three suspects were arrested.
A 15-year-old male is charged with public mischief, police said.
He and two other teens, none of whom can be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, also are charged with breaching release conditions, police said.
The three were herd pending a bail hearing Thursday, police said.