A 16-year-old male has been arrested and a replica handgun has been seized following an incident that resulted in an Oakville high school briefly being placed under lockdown on Tuesday afternoon.
At around 2:45 p.m., Halton Regional Police Service tweeted that White Oaks Secondary School, near Sixth Line and McCraney Street East, was in lockdown for reports of a male with a firearm in the area.
Several nearby schools - École secondaire Gaétan-Gervais, Montclair Public School, St. Michael Elementary, Munns Public School and École élémentaire du Chêne - were also placed under hold and secure orders as a result.
However, police confirmed at around 3:40 p.m. that a suspect had been taken into custody and the lockdown and hold and secure orders at local schools had been lifted.
“In this instance there were no reports of any shots fired so officers were able to do a methodical search (of the school) and locate the suspect safely,” Const. Steve Elms told CP24. “The thing with replica firearms is it is very difficult for police or members of the public to discern the fact that it is actually a replica firearm so for the police response we are going to treat that as though it is a real firearm.”
It is not clear what charges, if any, the suspect will face.
