Dramatic video has surfaced showing the end of a truck on a rampage at a Nanaimo mall.
The truck crashed into buildings and vehicles at Country Club Centre Monday night.
In the video, you can hear screaming and yelling as the truck races across the parking lot and smashes into a wall.
“It was really intense cause I wasn’t like that far away by the time it was all over,” said Bjorn Samson, a witness.
“My heart was racing quite a lot cause I’ve never seen anything like this in my life. It’s like out of a movie.”
It happened just before 7 p.m. Monday.
The driver rammed the mall and raced across the parking lot, smashing an occupied car along the way, before smashing into another building. Then he headed across the parking lot, hitting another car before crashing into Country Club Centre again.
“The carnage around here is insane,” said Samson.
“There are bricks all over the place and like half the buildings are destroyed so I got pretty scared and I backed off and called 911.”
The final impact injured the driver. BC Ambulance took him to the hospital. He’s since been released.
“The chances of somebody being injured or die from that were so significant,” said Const. Gary O’Brien of tje Nanaimo RCMP.
“Country Club mall is always busy. The gym is there as well. By the grace of God, nobody was injured.”
Nanaimo RCMP says they’re considering charges of dangerous driving and drug impairment but say it may take a while until charges are laid.
“Officers did take it upon themselves to, first of all, seize his vehicle, secondly seize his license and issue a prohibition from driving so his driving privileges are temporarily suspended in BC,” said O’Brien.
Tuesday crews continued the cleanup at the mall. Urban Barn is closed. Management says they’re working to get the store reopened by Thursday.
The mall’s manager says the damage is into the hundreds of thousands of dollars but all are breathing a sigh of relief that only the driver was injured.
For more details see the last CHEK News web post on the incident.
Kendall Hanson
