A 26-year-old male will be facing a number of charges relating to vehicle thefts, a carjacking and a police chase.
The series of incidents took place on May 1, starting in Nakusp and ending in Castlegar.
According to an RCMP press release it all started around 8 a.m. when a Slocan Lake RCMP officer responded to a complaint of an erratic driver.
The vehicle, a Honda Civic, was located by the officer. When the officer stepped out of his police car to speak to the driver, the driver put the car in reverse and rammed the police car several times before fleeing.
That car would turn out to be the first of a series of stolen vehicles.
A short time later the Honda Civic rear ended a Dodge Dakota driven by a New Denver woman near Enterprise Creek. Sue Edge pulled over to speak to the male who had collided with her, and the male then stole her truck, leaving her on the side of the road.
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“I got out to find out what the damage was — he ran up beside me, jumped in the truck and took off,” said Edge in a Castlegar News interview later that afternoon.
Edge says the man didn’t say anything to her, or threaten her in any way, “but his eyes were beet red.”
The Dodge truck was abandoned in Slocan City, and a school district dump truck was stolen.
A member of the West Kootenay Traffic Services located the moving dump truck, and attempted to pull it over. Another traffic member, coming in the opposite direction, was forced off the road by the oncoming dump truck.
The dump truck was located abandoned on a private property in Krestova.
A short time later, a brown GMC pick up was stolen in Krestova and headed towards Castlegar on Pass Creek Road.
A Castlegar RCMP officer deployed a spike belt, causing the GMC to come to a stop. After a brief foot chase, the suspect driver was taken into custody.
Sgt. Laurel Matthew reports that no police officers were injured during the incidents, but the driver of the stolen Dodge pick up suffered minor injuries.
The suspect remains in custody and is facing numerous charges including robbery, theft of a motor vehicle, possession of stolen property, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, flight from police and failing to stop at scene of accident.
The investigation is continuing and police will be recommending further charges.
The suspect also has outstanding charges out of the Okanagan including robbery, possession of stolen property and theft of a motor vehicle.
Members from Central Kootenay RCMP, Castlegar RCMP, Traffic Services, the Crime Reduction Unit, and the General Investigations Unit were all involved in the investigation.
