By Jessica Wind (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: November 21, 2012
First fire trucks, now police cruisers – it’s been an eventful month at UFV’s King Road campus.
On November 5, just before 7 p.m., campus security and officers of the Abbotsford Police Department (APD) were seen escorting a handcuffed man off campus, to a cruiser waiting in the loading zone between B and D buildings. This followed an incident in administration where the man in question became agitated during an attempt to sort out some paperwork.
The APD received a call at 6:30 p.m. from campus security about the incident. The man, a 40-year-old Mission resident and UFV student, became verbally aggressive with UFV staff, which resulted in a call to security and then the APD.
APD media liaison, constable Ian Macdonald reported that once the discussion regarding his paperwork did not go in his favour he became aggravated.
“When things didn’t go his way he became verbally belligerent and the staff felt scared. We arrested him for uttering threats,” MacDonald explained. The man is not someone police have had experience with before.
The student was, at the time of his arrest, due to be in Introduction to Communication Theory with social and cultural media studies professor, Éric Spalding.
Spalding did not wish to comment on the incident, except to confirm that the student is still registered in the course, despite being absent the week following his arrest.
UFV Marketing and Communications (MarCom) did not comment directly on the incident, but confirmed that they cooperate entirely with APD when police-related situations arise.
“If there are incidents on campus involving the police, UFV cooperates fully with the authorities,” MarCom director Leslie Courchesne said.
