The manhunt for 31-year-old Matthew Fowler lasted just a few hours and led to the closure of schools and other facilities across the northeastern Avalon Peninsula. Fowler’s arrest, tweeted by the RNC at 2:26 p.m., came shortly after police issued an emergency alert telling people to evacuate while they searched for a gunman. He was arrested after a vehicle chase that ended on the St. Thomas Line in Paradise. Police arrested Fowler near that scene on the St. Thomas Line on CBS The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary blocked off the road between Westport Drive and Paradise Road Thursday afternoon. (Ryan Cooke/CBC) Witnesses tell CBC News police deployed spike zones, which Fowler drove, making contact with at least one marked RNC cruiser before he was pinned between two unmarked police vehicles. The RNC had blocked off a section of the St. Thomas Line between Westport Drive and Paradise Road on Thursday afternoon. Police said at least two people were seriously injured in the three shootings — one on Uplands Road in the city’s Chamberlains area and the other about seven kilometers away on Greeleytown Road in the Foxtrap neighborhood. Police initially said two people were injured in separate shootings. In an emergency alert, the RNC said there were three shots fired, but did not say where the third shot was or if anyone was injured in it. They said they believe the shootings were targeted. This RNC cruiser was damaged in the hunt for a suspect in three CBS shootings. (Ryan Cooke/CBC) Fowler’s arrest was followed by a wave of reopenings across the region. The English School District of Newfoundland and Labrador, which had placed all schools in northeast Avalon on safe mode, tweeted at 2:21 p.m. that the police had informed them that they could reopen the schools. “Families should be aware that schools will dismiss at their regular times, but there may be delays,” the board tweeted. Among other things, St. John’s and Paradise reopened their facilities, and Metrobus canceled its plan to take its buses off the road early. Both men who were injured in the shooting are being treated at the hospital. Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador
