University of Ottawa Lifts Nearly Two-Hour Lockdown After Suspicious Man Arrested

A suspicious man with an undisclosed threat level sent the University of Ottawa into lockdown for nearly two hours Friday afternoon, trapping students inside buildings while the situation, in the words of Ottawa Police Inspector Brian Samuel, "seemed to take on a course of its own on social media."

Ottawa Police received the initial call at approximately 4:20 p.m. ET after reports of a suspicious person near the Rideau Centre, the major downtown shopping mall steps from campus. Officers used CCTV footage to track the individual from the mall to the university grounds and then to uOttawa Station, the nearby LRT stop, establishing an increased presence at the central campus intersection of Nicholas Street and Laurier Avenue.

The university's formal lockdown notice did not arrive until 5:18 p.m. ET, nearly an hour after police were first called. It described a "violent incident occurring on campus" and directed students to barricade themselves inside buildings, stay away from doors and windows, and remain silent. Two subsequent lockdown holds followed at 6:00 p.m. and 6:37 p.m. ET as the search continued.

The alert gap had immediate consequences. Third-year student Jasmine Martin said she was unaware of the situation despite the official notice: "I did not know there was a lockdown until my mom gave me a call and was freaking out and asked if I was OK." Mehmet Ozbay, caught outside his dorm when campus security approached him, recalled being told: "There's a lockdown, you should go in," adding: "It's a scary thing that things like this can happen." Santiago Proteau Sanchez received the notification directly on his phone.

The man was arrested off campus on Waller Street shortly before 7:00 p.m. He has not been identified, and no charges have been announced. The Ottawa Paramedic Service confirmed it received no calls related to the incident. The university lifted the lockdown at 7:10 p.m., announcing in both English and French that campus was safe.

Samuel drew a clear line between police action and the university's decision to lock down. "It was their decision to go into a lockdown mode," he said, noting that officers "located the individual very quickly." He added that whether charges would be laid remained up to investigators. Jesse Robichaud, the university's Director of Public Affairs, said safety protocols were "instituted responsibly with the maximum care and caution" and that wellness supports were being made available to the university community.

OC Transpo's LRT Line 1 bypassed uOttawa Station for the duration of the lockdown, with special constable cruisers parked outside. Service resumed once the all-clear was issued.

The University of Ottawa, the largest bilingual English-French university in the world, enrolls nearly 50,000 students across its main campus in Ottawa's Sandy Hill neighbourhood, steps from Parliament Hill and the Rideau Centre. Friday's arrest left the central question unresolved: with the man's identity withheld and no charges announced, students ended the week knowing little more about what threatened them than they did when the first lockdown alert appeared.