By James Peters

Report of shots fired on North Shore turns out to be false

Jul 2, 2015 | 3:00 PM

At 1 O’clock Thursday afternoon Kamloops RCMP received a phone call indicating a man had been shot at Lethbridge at 14th Street. Constable Jason Epp says 911 received the call that claimed a male had a gun and a knife and was telling the complainant to go back to his own country and that he had shot the complainant’s brother. Kamloops RCMP responded with all of its available resources. The South East District Emergency Response Team comprised of members from Kelowna, Vernon and Kamloops also responded to today’s incident. Epp says upon arriving at the scene, police cordoned off the area, began evacuating neighboring homes and started to contain the suspect residence in the 1100 block of 14th Street. He says after a lengthy standoff, phone contact was made with the occupants inside the house who eventually came outside. Epp says they were interviewed by police and it was determined the information received from the phone call was a completely false allegation. The occupants are believed to be victims of the public complaint as Epp says whoever made the call actually targeted the residents to make it look like they were the suspects. He says police continue to investigate to search for those who made the call to RCMP. He confirms there were no shots fired and no weapons were located. Epp says it’s believed that the occupants may have had contact with the suspects earlier in the day, but says it doesn’t appear they are known to each other.