Armed man confronts RCMP in Nunavut community

No one injured in March 30 incident in Baker Lake

By JANE GEORGE

An armed man and police were engaged in a confrontation March 30 outside the RCMP detachment in Baker Lake, shown here. (PHOTO COURTESY OF GOOGLE MAPS)


An armed man and police were engaged in a confrontation March 30 outside the RCMP detachment in Baker Lake, shown here. (PHOTO COURTESY OF GOOGLE MAPS)

(Updated, April 1, 11:50 a.m.)

Nunavut saw yet another violent firearms incident over the Easter weekend, this time outside the RCMP detachment in Baker Lake.

On March 30, members of the Baker Lake RCMP were involved in a confrontation with an armed man outside the local detachment building, a March 31 RCMP news release said.

Joseph Qaqsauq Attutuvaa, 21, was arrested, the news release said.

Attutuvaa faces several firearms-related offences, including assaulting a peace officer with a weapon, pointing a firearm and possessing a firearm for a dangerous purpose, police said.

Attutuvaa, who has been taken into custody, will appear April 9 at the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit.

No one was injured as a result of this incident, the RCMP said.

The investigation is continuing, the news release said.

Police said they wanted to thank an anonymous resident of Baker Lake who tried to warn police “that this event was unfolding without their knowledge.”

Anyone with information about this incident is encouraged to contact the Baker Lake RCMP at 867-793-0123.

People in Baker Lake told Nunatsiaq News that Attutuvaa experienced “very tough” times over the past two years: a grandfather sent to jail, the recent death of an uncle, and the suicide of a cousin two weeks ago.

Add to that the family’s overcrowded living conditions and a legacy of trauma, and the young man may have reached his breaking-point, said a Baker Lake resident, who spoke to the newspaper on the the condition of anonymity.

“Mental illness is final result of numerous aspects [of living] in a fishbowl,” the resident said. The result is “a sad, continual history of leaving victims at all levels.”

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