By meadowlakeNOW

Mayor advocates extra precaution after shooting

Nov 14, 2017 | 2:44 PM

Meadow Lake Mayor Gary Vidal says he wants to assure citizens authorities are working hard on the case after a 17-year-old was shot and later died of his wounds.

RCMP were called to a residence at roughly 10:30 a.m. on Nov. 13 where they found the injured male victim suffering from suspected gunshot wounds. He was taken to hospital, and died upon arrival. The identity of the victim has not yet been released.

“It is a shocking event,” he said. “We don’t expect things like this in our little community. I would like to assure people that we have great people working on this. When something like this happens, it’s an all hands on deck, the [local RCMP] have the support of surrounding detachments and support of Major Crimes [Unit] people that come from outside.”

The city’s aquatic centre and arena were placed on lockdown yesterday afternoon, as an extra precaution, Vidal said.

“That wasn’t recommended by the RCMP, that was just us taking a little bit of extra precaution to make sure those facilities were safe,” he said. “It’s something we’re going to evaluate as to how we react to those things the future. It wasn’t something that was an imminent threat, it was something our administration felt was appropriate at the time.”