Police shut access to a residential street near Esquimalt High School and deployed the Greater Victoria Emergency Response Team on Saturday for a mental-health crisis call.
About a dozen officers were on Ellery Street turning away traffic around 3 p.m.
Several blocks immediately adjacent to Ellery had their access restricted as well.
Officers on scene declined to say what was happening at the time.
Later in the evening after the operation had wrapped up, Victoria police spokesperson Cheryl Major said the emergency response team was activated because police had reason to believe the person in crisis may have had access to firearms. The public was not at risk and the issue has since been resolved, she said.
Audrey, a resident of an apartment complex on Ellery Street, told the sa国际传媒 the operation was centred around their apartment building.
Audrey and their husband saw two officers in plain clothes hopping over the apartment fence shortly after leaving home for an errand just before 3 p.m.
There were numerous uniformed and non-uniformed officers openly carrying guns and taking cover behind whatever they could find, but they were waved through and was allowed to go out of the blockade, Audrey said.
