Firearms, explosive charges laid in Edmonton City Hall shooting
A 28-year-old man is facing several firearms and arson charges after shots were fired and a Molotov cocktail exploded inside Edmonton City Hall Tuesday morning.
The building was full of people at the time.
Mayor Amarjeet Sohi, several city councillors, the city’s fire chief, city staff and journalists were inside the building attending an emergency management committee meeting when shots rang out.
A Grade 1 class from Edmonton Public Schools was on a field trip to city hall when it was put on lockdown. The students were safely escorted outside and onto a bus to go back to school.
Members of a Global News crew at city hall said they and others were put into a lockdown sometime around 10:30 a.m. after several loud bangs were heard.
Edmonton Police Service Chief Dale McFee said the shooter entered city hall through the underground parkade and walked through the building with a gun, firing shots and shattering glass, mostly on the second floor.
It appeared the suspect was shooting “randomly,” McFee said, not necessarily at people.
McFee said the man was heavily armed and carrying several incendiary devices that police described as Molotov cocktails.
An unarmed commissionaire — or city security guard — initially detained the shooter before police arrived to arrest the man. No one was injured.
The suspect appeared to be wearing what looked like a security jacket, a vest and a security shirt. McFee said it’s too early to say if he worked or ever worked in that role but that’s something investigators will look into.
Charges were filed in court on Tuesday against a 28-year-old man named Bezhani Sarvar.
Court documents link the man, the charges and the shooting at city hall.
Sarvar is charged with reckless arson in an occupied
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