CEGEP de Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu quickly went into lockdown after police received a 911 call about a man behaving in a “suspicious” manner around 9 a.m., sending some students into a panic and heavily armed officers securing around the facility. 
Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu police said the man was taken into custody on Friday night and is expected to appear in court on Saturday on charges of uttering threats.  Officers arrested the man about an hour after the 911 call “based on information received from multiple sources,” police said in a news release early Friday evening.
No injuries were reported.
A woman under the age of 18 was also arrested, initially as a suspect, but police said Friday night that she was later considered a witness “and had no involvement in this incident.”
Students and staff were safely escorted out of the building by police once the lockdown was lifted early Friday afternoon, according to St-Jean-sur-Richelieu police spokesman Sgt.  Jérémie Lévesque.  A pregnant woman was taken to hospital as a precaution, he said.  Classes were canceled for the rest of the day.
The lockdown was maintained for about three hours as police investigated whether or not there was another suspect.  A third person was stopped by police but has since been let go after officers determined he was not connected to the incident.
Students at Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu College (CEGEP) are on lockdown on November 11, 2022. (Marie-Pier Boucher/Info Noovo)
Police have not confirmed if the man arrested is related to the college. 
A video of the arrests shows the man dressed in a white long-sleeved shirt, dark cargo pants and what police confirmed was a bulletproof vest.  He is seen kneeling in front of the officers with his hands behind his head.

“I TOLD MY MOM I LOVE HER”

The school sent out notices to students and staff Friday morning to stay inside their classrooms and barricade themselves, causing panic among some students who were left in the dark about what was happening.
One student told CTV News she was locked in her classroom with about 30 other students for more than three hours, and while on lockdown she exchanged text messages — some of them emotional — with her mother.
“I really thought I could die, honestly,” Marie-Pier Pelletier said after being kicked out of the school.
“I told my mom I loved her because I didn’t know what was going to happen.”
“He told me to calm down and breathe and that everything will be fine. I know he’s stressed too. But he tried to comfort me and it worked.”
After she was allowed to leave the school she said she planned to go home and give her mother a hug.
Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu police have set up a security perimeter around the college and said the public, including students and parents, is being asked to stay away from the site.
Students barricaded themselves inside CEGEP Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu (Source: Laurence Bilodeau, student Cégep de Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu / Noovo Info)

THE STUDENTS WENT TO THEIR CLASSES

Annie Metivier, an interior design technician at the college, said she and four others — a colleague and three students — barricaded themselves in their classroom.
“I’m still locked in and we don’t know anything … We’re monitoring the information on social media and from our friends outside,” Metivier said in a Facebook Messenger exchange with The Canadian Press.
“There are five of us in my office right now and we turned off the lights because that’s what we were instructed to do.”
Police spokeswoman Const.  Barbara-Ann Dion said officers searched the campus room by room.
Metivier said she wanted the police operation over with.
“We’re fine yeah … stressed but it’s okay. We just can’t wait for this to be over,” she said.  “I saw the police with their guns next to my desk because I had to go back and lock a door that a teacher next to my desk had unlocked. They said ‘hurry, hurry and lock yourself in’… seeing the police with their guns ready to shoot … it increases stress.”
Vanessa Nadeau, 17, was on her way to school for a 10 a.m. class when the lockdown took place.  Speaking to CTV News about college, she said she’s been texting her friends stuck in to make sure she’s okay.
“We want to wait [here] because we want to make sure they’re OK,” he said.
Officers were still at the scene as the investigation continued Friday afternoon.
With files from CTV Montreal’s Kelly Greig and The Canadian Press