Nanaimo break and enter victim struck on the head with a rock, but helps police catch suspect

CHEK

File photo.

File photo.

A woman who called police in Nanaimo about her home being broken into was also assaulted by the suspect while holding her down for officers to make an arrest.

Nanaimo RCMP says they were called Tuesday afternoon at around 3:30 p.m. from a woman who reported a suspect fleeing her home on Marisa Street with stolen goods.

Police learned the suspect had taken the complainant’s electronics and a backpack that contained a school paper worth half of her final mark. Foreign currency and a Fitbit were also taken.

Ashley Stevenson and her common-law partner Joe Squire, a realtor who was working at home were both upstairs in the house while the suspect entered the front door then proceeded to rifle through an office downstairs.

After a chase through backyards and over fences, they later cornered the 28-year-old female suspect and held her on the ground until police arrived.

“I just kind of elbowed her from behind and grabbed my backpack and flung us both into the ditch where we wrestled around for a little bit,” said Ashley Stevenson.

Both Stevenson and Squire suffered minor bumps, bruises and lacerations.

During the struggle, investigators say the suspect spit at Stevenson and Squire and also picked up a rock and struck Stevenson on the head.

“Good for these two for doing what they did. We would, however, be remiss to not point out they could have been seriously harmed during the struggle,” said Nanaimo RCMP Cst. Gary O’Brien said in a release.

O’Brien says you should not get into a physical altercation with a suspect and added the suspect would have been arrested just the same if the two had followed from a safe distance and provided updates to police.

28-year-old Natasha Geraldine Harris will make her next court appearance December 11.

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