On Canada Day, Victoria Police officers responding to an improperly parked vehicle on Dallas Road were nearly hit as the driver fled the scene.
Around 4 p.m., bike officers were patrolling in the 300-block of Dallas Road and were flagged down by a driver, who informed them there was an improperly parked vehicle blocking traffic.
The officers found a large truck with a camper in the bed that was improperly parked in a way that it was blocking traffic.
The officers spoke with people nearby and asked if they knew the driver, and when a witness told the officers the vehicle had been there for two hours, so the officers called a tow truck.
While doing so, the officers saw someone across the street filming them with their phone. The person then approached them and said the person was the owner of the truck and asked the officers to stop traffic so they could leave.
The officers told the person they were being detained for an investigation, but the driver got into the vehicle and started it. Officers told 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,” VicPD says in a release. “The driver then fled the area. The [Community Services Division] bike officers followed from a distance, radioing the vehicle’s direction of travel.”
Later a patrol officer saw the vehicle in the 300-block of Douglas Street and tried to pull the truck over. The truck refused to stop and unsafely overtook a vehicle.
Due to the nearby pedestrians the patrol officer did not pursue and radioed the direction of travel.
“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 release says.
“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.”
VicPD officers are recommending charges of assault with a weapon, assaulting a police officer, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle and flight from police.
Officers are continuing to investigate this file and are asking to speak with anyone who witnessed the incident, however tell CHEK News they are unable to provide a description of the truck or driver.
If you have information about this incident and have yet to speak with an officer, you are asked to call the VicPD Report Desk at (250) 995-7654 ext 1.
CHEK News
