A Surrey man is facing assault charges after allegedly injuring two Delta police officers on the B.C. Day long weekend.
According to a press release by the Delta Police Department, officers responded to a call to Watershed Park around 9 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 3 after a member of the public reported a suspicious man in the park.
The caller indicated to police that he left the area because he felt too uncomfortable as a result of his encounter with the man to go on his planned run on the park’s trails.
A DPD officer arrived and located a man matching the description the caller had given police, who then began throwing rocks at the police vehicle. The officer attempted to de-escalate the situation, but the man suddenly ran from police and entered the driver’s seat of the police vehicle. The vehicle had no keys in it at the time.
The officer requested Emergency Health Services and more police attend the scene and continued to speak with the man in an effort to de-escalate the situation, but the man became increasingly agitated.
At that time, concerned for his own safety and that of the public, the officer attempted to handcuff the man. However, the man allegedly punched the officer, then used the officer’s handcuffs, which had dropped during the altercation, to repeatedly strike the officer on the face and head.
Despite receiving significant injuries, the officer managed to hold the man in place in the police vehicle.
Other officers in the area responded quickly and managed to take the man into custody, during which the man allegedly bit another police officer twice on the hand. The man was subdued and then taken to hospital.
“Our officer received 23 stitches or staples for five separate lacerations to the face and head during this incident, and one of our other responding officers was bitten on the hand,” Superintendent Harj Sidhu, head of the DPD’s community policing bureau, said in a press release.
“Both officers will be okay fortunately, but we could have had a very different outcome. This underscores the dangers that police officers can and do face every day — even on what seems like a fairly standard call of a suspicious person.”
Police say a 23-year-old Surrey man is facing four charges including assault causing bodily harm, assaulting a peace officer, uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm and resisting a peace officer. He is currently being held for psychiatric assessment.
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