New Westminster police have confirmed a suspicious device found in the West End on Wednesday posed a threat to the public.
After receiving a call about a suspected explosive device in the West End neighbourhood on June 19, the New Westminster Police Department asked some area residents to leave “out of an abundance of caution” and closed off several roads in the neighbourhood.
The Lower Mainland Integrated Police Dog Service helped secure the area. BC RCMP’s Explosive Disposal Unit, working in partnership with the NWPD, attended and safely removed the object, which was found outdoors.
NWPD spokesperson Sgt. Andrew Leaver said the police department’s Major Crime Unit is now leading the investigation.
“Anytime we encounter something we believe might be as an explosive device we do treat it as if it were,” he told the Record on Thursday. “So, in this case, we did call the RCMP explosives unit and they attended and confirmed that it was in fact an explosive device that did pose a safety risk to the public and were able to neutralize it on scene.”
The RCMP’s website states the BC RCMP Explosives Disposal Unit is comprised of full time, highly trained police explosives technicians who utilized state-of-the-art specialized equipment (disrupters, robots, bomb suits and protective gear) to render safe a multitude of explosives emergencies.
The investigation into this incident is ongoing.
