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Customers corral 'berserk' woman at Barrie Tim Hortons

Citizens applauded for barricading suspect inside
2017-09-19 Tim Hortons where woman went berserk
The Tim Hortons on Quarry Ridge Road where the incident occurred. Sue Sgambati/BarrieToday

A woman is facing nine charges after police say she went on a destructive spree in Barrie's north end.

The drama began around 7 a.m. on Quarry Ridge Road. 

"She went on a bit of a rampage and started damaging vehicles on Quarry Ridge Road and throwing around some garbage cans. She was approached by a man to see if she was okay and she punched him in the face," said Barrie Police Const. Nicole Rodgers.

The woman then went to the nearby Tim Hortons across the road from Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre and began throwing rocks at the windows, according to police.

"She entered the restaurant and confronted some people inside, started throwing tables and chairs around, ripping out the debit machine.  A Tim Hortons employee tried to put an arm around the woman to get her to stop and the employee was hit in the shoulder.  That's when everyone thought, okay, we're backing away," Rodgers said. 

Some people started to leave the restaurant. The woman began throwing mugs around and at one point wound up having a knife in her hand, witnesses told police.

"That's when everyone evacuated the Tim Hortons and barricaded the door, keeping her inside and everybody else out," Rodgers said. 

Police arrived and took the woman, who no longer had the knife, into custody. She was arrested without incident and taken to court. 

"It was quite a scary ordeal, " said a witness who declined to be identified. "She was throwing stuff everywhere. She didn't say a word throughout the whole thing."

Rodgers says officers were on scene very quickly and she commended customers and staff for their actions. 

"Seems like the citizens did everything right. They tried to step in and stop her and then when it was not a safe situation they exited and held the doors until we were able to get there and created a safe environment, which is great," said Rodgers.

"There's so much goes on now when we talk about the extreme cases, like an active shooter in a building. This is like a lesser version, someone going berserk, that's a call we get," said Rodgers.

"It's about creating a safe environment for everyone and keeping the person contained in order for us to get there with our equipment and our training and using it."

An 18-year-old Barrie woman is facing nine charges including two counts of mischief under $5,000, two assault, three counts assault with a weapon, one count of weapons dangerous one count of breach probation. 

The restaurant was closed for a couple of hours for the investigation and the clean-up. 

 

 

 

 


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Sue Sgambati

About the Author: Sue Sgambati

Sue has had a 30-year career in journalism working for print, radio and TV. She is a proud member of the Barrie community.
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