The Victoria Police Department has arrested one man following an alleged crime spree that included stealing a vehicle, assaulting the vehicle owner, colliding the vehicle with a hydro pole and barricading himself inside a suite.
Patrol officers said that they worked alongside the Greater Victoria Emergency Response Team (GVERT) in order to arrest a man on Friday morning following a barricade at a multi-unit temporary housing facility in the 300-block of Gorge Road East.
A police report, issued on Friday, says that police were informed of the unfolding incident at around 2 a.m. this morning. Officers said they attended the scene where the vehicle had been reported stolen and learned that the owner of the vehicle was alerted to the theft and attempted to stop the vehicle from fleeing the scene.
Police said that the suspect had assaulted the vehicle owner and, while attempting to leave the scene, collided with a hydro pole. The vehicle collision with the pole caused significant damage and the vehicle owner suffered non-life-threatening injuries from the assault, according to the report.
After he crashed the vehicle, the suspect fled into a nearby multi-unit temporary housing facility and barricaded himself within a suite at that location.
Police said that GVERT and crisis negotiators were called to the scene and worked for “several hours” to resolve the incident.
Shortly after 8 a.m. this morning the suspect surrendered himself to officers without incident, the VicPD report said.
Police add that GVERT has remained on scene at the housing facility in the 300-block of Gorge Road East, as a second suspect is currently barricaded in the same suite as the first incident for separate reasons.
According to police, the second suspect involved in a barricade “is the subject of conditions of an undertaking not to be at that location,” adding that “these conditions stem from a serious assault file.”
Victoria Police tweeted at around 1:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon to say the second barricade incident had concluded.
Traffic in the 300-block of Gorge Road East is expected to return to normal soon.
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