Photos: Tenant threatens property manager with knife in St. Catharines

Niagara Regional Police (NRP) endured a lengthy stand-off with a man in St. Catharines after he threatened his property manager with a knife and didn’t surrender to police for 12 hours.

Police responded shortly before 3:30 p.m. to a building in the area of Geneva St. and Welland Ave. after receiving reports of an armed man.

Officers located the man with a knife on the roof of the building upon arrival. Police say he refused to drop the knife and members of NRP Emergency Task Unit as well as crisis negotiators were called to the scene.

Negotiations continued until 3:15 a.m., almost 12 hours after police had initially responded to the scene.

#StCatharines
Can’t hear local police due to radio encryption, but FD are still active at this scene; so I presume negotiations are still ongoing at Geneva Street and Welland Ave. It didn’t appear ‘volatile’…

A few images from before the sun went down. @firefighters_st pic.twitter.com/WbWK6bfk1f

— Shane B. Murphy (@shanermurph) August 1, 2022

The suspect was contained to the roof and officers deployed ladders with the assistance of St. Catharines Fire Service and arrested the man.

28-year-old Rory Docherty of St. Catharines has been charged with the criminal offence of assault with a weapon.

Docherty was taken to hospital after his arrest where he remains at this time. He will be released on a Form 10 Undertaking with a future court date.

An armed man wasn’t the only thing police had to be dealing with at the time.

During the middle of negotiations, at around 9 p.m. police notify the public that they have noticed a drone flying in the area.

“Operating a drone in or near an emergency scene is a violation under Transport Canada flight regulations,” Niagara Police said on Twitter. “Your drone may be seized and you may be fined. You are jeopardizing the safety of everyone involved. Cease and desist.”

Anyone who may have information about this incident is asked to call 1 District St. Catharines Detective office at 905-688-4111, extension 1024233.