Date: Monday, July 4, 2022
File: 22-24660
Victoria, BC – Two VicPD officers had to leap to safety on July 1st after a driver of a large pick-up truck attempted to flee a traffic stop.
Just after 4 p.m. on Friday, July 1st, Community Services Division (CSD) bike officers were conducting bike patrol in James Bay when they were flagged down by motorist who told them that there was a vehicle improperly parked in the 300-block of Dallas Road which was impeding traffic. Officers arrived and located a large truck with a camper in the bed. This truck was improperly parked such that it was obstructing traffic in the northbound lane of Dallas Road. Officers began conducting traffic control and asked people nearby if they’d seen the driver. Upon hearing from a witness that the vehicle had been parked there for approximately 2 hours and that the driver had left the area, officers called for a tow truck to move the vehicle.
Officers noted a person standing across the street filming them with their phone. After several minutes, that person then approached officers, identified themselves as the owner of the truck, and requested that officers stop traffic so they could leave. Officers informed the driver that they were being detained for an investigation. The person disregarded officers’ demands, entered the vehicle and started it. Officers again informed the driver they were not free to leave. The driver put the vehicle into gear and then rapidly reversed out of the parking stall towards officers, causing officers to leap out of the way to avoid being run over. The driver then fled the area. The CSD bike officers followed from a distance, radioing the vehicle’s direction of travel.
A short time later, a Patrol officer spotted the vehicle in the 300-block of Douglas Street. The officer pulled in behind the vehicle and activated their police vehicle’s emergency lights and siren and gave the driver of the truck direction to pull over. The driver refused to stop and instead performed an unsafe overtake of a vehicle ahead. Given the presence of nearby pedestrians and the large number of people in the nearby park for Canada Day, the Patrol officer did not pursue and radioed the truck’s last direction of travel to other officers.
The vehicle was then spotted in downtown Victoria, driving erratically on Blanshard Street, before turning left onto Pandora Avenue heading in the direction of the road closure area for the Canada Day celebrations at Ship Point. The driver then stopped the truck in the 600-block of Pandora Avenue and was boxed in by responding VicPD Patrol and Integrated Canine Service (ICS K9) officers. The driver was pulled from the truck and arrested.
The driver was transported to VicPD cells and later released with a future court date for recommended charges of assault with a weapon, assaulting a police officer, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle and flight from police.
This file remains under investigation.
Officers are hoping to speak with additional witnesses who may have information about this incident. If you have information about this incident and have yet to speak with an officer, please call the VicPD Report Desk at (250) 995-7654 ext 1.
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