Canadian police investigating break-in at prime minister's home

November 6, 1995
Web posted at: 1 p.m. EST (1800 GMT)

OTTAWA, Ontario (CNN) -- Canadian officials are investigating how a man was able to break into the residence of the prime minister and whether Royal Canadian Mounted Police were slow in responding.

Police said the suspect will be charged in court Monday.

Prime Minister Jean Chretien's wife, Aline, came face-to-face with the knife-wielding intruder early Sunday at the couple's bedroom door. She locked him out of the couple's room, where they waited until the RCMP arrived minutes later and arrested the man. The Chretiens were not injured.

Police said the man broke into the prime minister's home by smashing a window with a rock. Chretien told reporters his wife woke up about 2:45 a.m. when she heard a noise. "She got up and she saw a person in front of her, and she closed back the door very rapidly, came back to the room and locked the other door," Chretien said at the Ottawa airport before leaving to attend Yitzhak Rabin's funeral in Israel.

Chretien and wife Chretien said the sound of the door closing woke him up, and after his wife told him what she had seen, (96K AIFF sound or 96K WAV sound) she called the police, who responded within 10 minutes. (196K AIFF sound or 196K WAV sound)

"I'm fine," was Aline Chretien's only comment.

The RCMP said it will investigate the incident and why it took officers so long to respond to the call. While police initially said uniformed Mounties on duty on the grounds of the prime minister's residence responded to an alarm and took the man into custody, RCMP Inspector Jean St-Cyr later said officers had reacted to a telephone call from Aline Chretien, not an alarm.

It's the first time there has been such a serious security breach involving any Canadian prime minister.

Police in the Montreal suburb of Longueil confirmed the suspect is a 34-year-old convenience store worker whose family says he has a history of psychiatric problems. Police said his family had reported him missing last Wednesday.

The prime minister's house sits on a cliff overlooking the Ottawa River. It is surrounded by a wall of stone and wrought iron. It is still unclear how the man got onto the grounds.

Canadian police investigating break-in at prime minister's home

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