New Glasgow – Bang! Bang!
Two explosions rang out, startling in the near silence Friday afternoon, before a police radio springs to life. “We’ve got him, copy. We’ve got him.”
Dressed in black safety gear, members of the New Glasgow Police Emergency Response Team had blocked off a portion of Bernard Street Friday afternoon as they arrested a man.
“We need to make an arrest and we have the immediate area surrounded for safety, and we’ve evacuated some people for safety purposes,” said Deputy Chief Eric MacNeil. “The person is well-known to police and at this time, we’re considering him armed and dangerous.”
Arrested was Jason Albert Reddick, 40, of New Glasgow. Police threw a device called a flash bang into an apartment on Bernard Street, which emitted a loud bang and smoke, before they entered the apartment and arrested him.
“In a situation like this we use flash bangs for officer safety reasons,” explained MacNeil. “They distract the suspect in case they have a weapon. It gives us the advantage over the suspect.”
The New Glasgow Fire Department and paramedics were on standby in case there was a problem in the detonation of the flash bang.
Police were able to arrest Reddick without incident after a 45-minute standoff that involved more than a dozen officers from New Glasgow and the canine unit from Truro.
During that time, a woman who was inside the apartment was evacuated without injury.
Police had been looking for the man since a call came in at 10:22 p.m. Thursday about a case of a domestic assault on the east side of New Glasgow. The man allegedly had a weapon, but no one was injured at the time.
He was tracked to the Bernard Street apartment and police entered the building shortly before 3 p.m. Friday. The woman inside that dwelling was not the same woman involved in the domestic disturbance the evening before.
Reddick will be in custody over the weekend before being arraigned on charges of forcible confinement, assault and breach of probation in New Glasgow provincial court on Monday.
