A police standoff that took place Wednesday morning on Riverside Road in Abbotsford ended with a man and a woman in custody and facing charges.
The incident began at about 8 a.m. with numerous reports of a vehicle being driven erratically westbound on Highway 1.
Abbotsford Police Sgt. Judy Bird said RCMP Fraser Valley Traffic Services advised the APD that the truck had been stolen from Vernon and that they had encountered it earlier that morning in Chilliwack.
The stolen vehicle was then involved in a crash with an SUV near the intersection of Lonzo Road and Sumas Way in Abbotsford, just north of Highway 1.
The truck continued west on Lonzo Road and crashed into a cement barricade near Walmart, at which time the occupants fled on foot to a home on Riverside Road just south of King Road.
The occupants of the SUV were transported to hospital to be treated for injuries that were not life-threatening.
Meanwhile, an APD K9 unit tracked the two suspects to a residence in the 1600 block of Riverside Road, and APD patrol officers and members of the emergency response team attended the scene.
Multiple police units surrounded the home and issued commands for the suspects to exit the residence.
The residents of the house were not home at the time, but one of the two occupants arrived on the scene as the standoff was taking place.
The man said he was at his welding job when he received a call from an acquaintance who wondered why there were so many police surrounding his home.
The resident then confirmed with officers that two suspects had broken into the home and were refusing to come out.
The male suspect came out of the house around 9:45 a.m. with a pistol in his hand. He dropped the weapon when he was outside, and initially complied with police orders to crawl on the ground, but then stood up and refused to follow further commands.
He was subdued by two rounds from an Arwen projectile gun which struck him in his lower extremities.
He was then taken into custody, and the pistol was determined to be a replica.
Two dogs that were in the home escaped when the suspect exited, but they were rounded up. One was placed in the back of a patrol car for its safety, while the owner placed the other in his own vehicle.
The female suspect did not come out at that time, and police continued to surround the residence. Police sent a small robot, carrying a cellphone, into an open door of the residence.
They determined that she had been injured in the prior crashes, and she was taken out of the home at about 10:45 a.m. on a back board and then transported to hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.
The two suspects – a 34-year-old man and 40-year-old woman – were taken into custody and now face several charges, including break and enter.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the APD at 604-859-5225, text abbypd (222973) or call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
