A 57-year-old Nanaimo man is in custody facing numerous charges after crashing his truck into multiple RCMP vehicles Monday night.
The carnage unfolded at around 11:45 p.m. when an officer in a marked police vehicle was side-swiped in the northbound lane, near the intersection of Terminal Ave and Comox Road, by a man driving an older model grey pickup.
According to the Nanaimo RCMP, the motorist didn’t bother to stop after hitting the police cruiser and instead continued driving northbound through the intersection at a high rate of speed. At the time of the collision, the officer, who was unharmed, had activated the vehicle’s emergency sirens and was heading to an unrelated.
A few moments later, after being spotted and followed by another officer through the Prideaux and Fitzwilliam intersection, the suspect drove his truck into two Nanaimo RCMP vehicles that were parked on the street.
After colliding with parked vehicles, the man drove into the side of a nearby building.
Const. Gary O’Brien, media spokesperson with the Nanaimo RCMP, told CHEK News a quick-thinking police officer used his own vehicle to stop the rampaging man.
“A police officer saw this individual strike two police cars and then the suspect vehicle actually drove into the building and the police officer came out behind and pinned the truck to the building,” said O’Brien.
The man then got out of the pinned truck, became combative, and then began charging at the officer, who ended up using his taser and pepper spray multiple times, according to O’Brien.
Eventually, the 57-year-old Nanaimo man was arrested. He is facing numerous criminal code driving charges and remains in custody.
As a result of the rampage, two of the Nanaimo RCMP’s vehicles suffered extensive damage while two others had superficial damage. All four vehicles are currently out of service for repairs.
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