WATCH: A dramatic police takedown was caught on camera in Nanaimo Tuesday. Brian Faber was driving along a busy stretch of road when he saw an officer speed by him before pulling up to a car and pulling out his gun. Kendall Hanson has what happened next.
It was a scene from a real-life crime drama and one Nanaimo man found himself in the middle of it.
“My first instinct was to put it in reverse and move out of the way,” said witness Brian Faber. “But I grabbed my cell phone camera and started videotaping it.”
It all unfolded during Tuesday’s night’s rush hour when Brian Faber was driving down Bowen Road.
“The suspect was in the left turning lane on Bowen going onto Dufferin Cresent,” said Faber.
Suddenly a police SUV quickly passed his car and pulled up to this one at the busy intersection.
“I didn’t know what was going to go on,” said Faber. “I saw three people in the vehicle and he did hold them at gunpoint for several minutes so it was a little unnerving.”
Faber says several police cars showed up soon after to block the entire intersection off. Police then arrested all three people in the car.
Nanaimo RCMP says they pulled over the car because it was stolen. A Justice of the Peace approved chargeS of driving while prohibited and possession of stolen property against Tyler Walter Orenchuk. The other two in the car have been released without charges. Mounties say for an officer to pull their handgun during a high-risk take-down like that is not that unusual.
Faber says the officer seemed to perform well, maintaining his composure throughout the incident.
It was an up close and personal look at police in action, something Faber says he didn’t expect to experience first hand.
Kendall Hanson
