GANDER, NL – The presence of several RCMP vehicles at Walmart in Gander on Friday morning, Feb. 2, may have made the situation seem more severe than it was.
But based on information relayed to the Gander detachment at the time, Staff Sargent Roger Flynn said it was a warranted exercise in caution.
Without going into specifics, Flynn said the detachment received complaints about a suspicious male acting in a strange manner.
Officers responded, located the man inside Walmart and detained him for causing a disturbance while intoxicated.
“Based on some of the information we had coming in, we didn’t really know what (to expect),” Flynn said. “A lot of the times it’s the unknown… you want to err on the side of having more (officers) than you actually need.
“Once you have all the information you realize it could have been done with a lot less, but of course we don’t have that luxury – we have to go with the information being presented to us.”
Following the incident, the suspect was detained until he was sober and subsequently released, said Flynn. There were no charges laid.
