Heavily armed officers from the Emergency Response Unit took a man in for questioning after securing a house in Conestogo on Thursday morning.

That was the first of two takedowns Thursday, which actually began with an incident in a parking lot at Northfield Drive and Davenport Road in Waterloo around 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday night.

Waterloo Regional Police Supt. Kevin Chalk says "We learned that there'd been a number of males that were fighting down in that area and possible reports that a handgun may have been seen as well. We also learned that they dispersed and all took off in different vehicles."

According to Chalk, partial descriptions of the vehicles were obtained, and an investigation led to the location of one of the vehicles at the residence in Conestogo.

Around 5 a.m. on Thursday morning, Waterloo Regional police surrounded a home and sealed off Flax Mill Drive. They then used explosive distraction devices before taking a young man in for questioning around 9 a.m.

Neighbour Jeff Evans says "After a little while of standing around they'd actually set off some large explosions that we heard next door, and saw quite a bit of smoke…a young man was woken up by the explosions and surrendered peacefully to the police."

Chalk says investigators are now following up with the man being held.

"At this point, we don't know his status, what involvement if any this person had with the disturbance or not, but the vehicle was one of the ones given to us as a vehicle of interest so we're following that up now."

Then around 1 p.m. Thursday afternoon, another four people were taken into custody at the Comfort Inn in Cambridge in a high risk takedown.

The police activity there was also reportedly related to the handgun reported on Wednesday night.

Police say there are other people they want to talk to as they try to piece all the events together and the investigation is ongoing.