EDMONTON, Alberta, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- A man with a high-powered rifle who had been holding hostages in a government office building in Edmonton, Alberta, surrendered Wednesday night, police said.
The suspect surrendered peacefully, ending a nearly 10-hour standoff during which he had held eight hostages. No one was injured, The Globe and Mail reported.
Police said they negotiated with the suspect by telephone and escorted hostages out of the building during the ordeal, and only one remained in the building by the time the man surrendered.
The gunman, a former construction worker, had a grudge against the Workers' Compensation Board because he disagreed with its finding that he was healthy enough to go back to work with a bad knee, police said. He had detailed his complaint in an e-mail to a media outlet from the eighth floor of the building that housed the WCB, where he took the hostages about 8:40 a.m., prompting employees to rush out.
Police did not give the suspect's name, but neighbors and other sources identified him as Patrick Charles Clayton, the newspaper said.
"Everybody's safe and it's concluded successfully," Edmonton Police Inspector Terry Rocchio said.
Almost all the estimated 700 people who work in the building fled and city buses were used to move them from the area.
An employee who had been in the building told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. the tall, bald man fired one shot. Police wouldn't confirm any shots had been fired, the Edmonton Journal reported.
News 880 Radio reported the man told police he is "mad at the world" and accused the WCB of ruining his life. Board spokeswoman Dayna Therien confirmed to the CBC that the hostage-taker was upset about his workers' compensation application.
