Manitoba standoff ends without capture of Regina escapee

A daylong standoff at an apartment complex on the Opaskwayak Cree Nation near The Pas, Man., has ended without the capture of the escapee from a Saskatchewan jail who police believed might be inside.

RCMP received a tip around 11:30 a.m. CT Sunday that Daniel Richard Wolfe was inside an apartment in a 20-unit building on McGillivary Boulevard on the First Nation, 600 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.

Wolfe, 32, is one of six men who escaped from the Regina Provincial Correctional Centre on Aug. 24.

RCMP emergency response teams from Manitoba and Saskatchewan searched the building Monday morning with "negative results," RCMP said in a news release.

Dozens of tenants forced out

Heavily armed RCMP officers surrounded the apartment complex Sunday afternoon, and 18 of the building's 20 units were evacuated.About 65tenants were taken to a bus waiting nearby and spent the night either with friends or family or at local hotels.

They were allowed to return to their homes late Monday morning.

"I was cooking something for my son and I look outside there and there's six cops driving by, and I went to my back door and they were going to the other side [of the complex]," building resident Shauntel Head told CBC News.

"I seen a cop holding a shotgun, and I thought I would be in danger. I felt scared, because I'm four months pregnant."

Eileen Personius, who lives across the street from the apartment complex, said she's never seen so many police officers at one time.

"A lot of them, cars and trucks and then policemen with their shotguns, and then they started clearing units out," she said.

As the incident continued through the night, more officers arrived and lights were shone on a specific part of the apartment building.

Police began calling into the building over a loudspeaker, asking whoever was inside to call a phone number or indicate they were inside by flicking the lights on and off, Personius said.

2 escapees still missing

Wolfe, who is from The Pas, Man., is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder in a violent home invasion in Fort Qu'Appelle, Sask., in 2007.

He and another man, Ryan John Agecoutay, 25, are the only escapees who have so far eluded capture.

Police have described the two as armed and dangerous.Anyone with information on their whereabouts is asked to call the RCMP or local Crime Stoppers.

The province of Saskatchewan has set up a contact line to gather information on what led up to the escape. Callers will not be required to identify themselves. The phone number is 1-866-999-4644 and will operate until Sept. 26.