What a time to go for a drive.
Leroy Kuhn left his Rutland home at around 4:00 p.m. on Monday to tend to his cousin’s garden.
Upon his return just 45 minutes later, still wearing his dirty gardening clothes, he discovered a busted fire hydrant shooting water all over Highway 33 and was told by RCMP that he couldn’t go home.
“I didn’t know anything about what happened,” said Kuhn. “I thought they had just hooked the fire hydrant with the backhoe in the construction area.”
Kuhn didn’t know it at the time, but a Rutland area crime spree that started with a stabbing and a carjacking on Arab Road culminated in an over four-hour standoff at his home on Bryden Road.
READ MORE: Kelowna man’s spree ends in four-hour long standoff
READ MORE: Rutland standoff suspect to appear in court next week
“We are very fortunate. The good Lord was very good to us,” said Kuhn of the fact that he and his wife were not home during the incident.
“When we got closer, the police told us there was ‘somebody in that house’—pointing over here—’and he’s a dangerous person.'”
The police told Kuhn they wanted to get the man out of the house with as little damage as possible, but would use tear gas as a last resort.
“At about 9 o’clock they had to tear gas him,” said Kuhn. “They broke the windows in the bathroom and the bedroom, and the big front window. They threw tear gas in, and we heard a couple of big ‘booms.”
After that, the man was apprehended, the RCMP gave the Kuhn’s the keys to their home back and told them not to go inside.
Currently, they are staying with neighbours.
“It is (a quiet place),” said Kuhn. “We have wonderful neighbours, they were all very nervous and thought we were in the house.”
Kuhn said his house is currently being worked on by contractors to fix the damage and the home is insured.
RCMP are still in the process of investigating all of the crime scenes. Witnesses who have not yet contacted RCMP are encouraged to do so immediately.
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