Patricial Sawadsky heard footsteps, shouting, the fire alarm and what she later discovered was breaking glass as an alleged robbery turned kidnapping took place at her apartment complex, Thursday afternoon.
“There has been noise from that apartment from some time, but the noise coming from this apartment was incredible,” said Sawadsky, a longtime resident of Orchard Manor, Friday.
“I opened the door to look… all the glass was here, the whole door was gone,” Sawadsky said, noticing the back door of the apartment complex. She saw a large number of marked and unmarked police vehicles outside of the complex. She was told to get back in her apartment.
A purse, and what appeared to be items of women’s clothing could be seen in the hallway outside of the apartment where the alleged kidnapping took place.
READ MORE: Alleged robbery turned kidnapping prompted Kelowna police presence
“I looked out the window here and there were all these great big vans… we didn’t know anything,” she said. She said the noise started around 4 p.m.
Sawadsky has been living in the building since 1998, but never has she seen a SWAT team at her complex. Parts of Bernard Aveune and Gordon Drive were closed yesterday due to the incident.
She saw the top of a man’s head as he ran past outside of her apartment, she said, with a police officer chasing him.
“He ran like the wind.”
The targeted crime which Mounties say was linked to the drug trade didn’t end Thursday on Bernard Avenue, which explains the social media buzz of numerous police sightings around the Okanagan.
Kamloops Cpl. Jodi Shelkie explained that the woman who was believed to be kidnapped in a Valentine’s Day Kamloops robbery was carted to Kelowna with her alleged assailants but not recovered in the downtown police lockdown.
She was later located in a vehicle stopped by police near Falkland.
READ MORE: Police incident unfolds in Kamloops
The investigation is still ongoing and police are working to identify and locate the second suspect involved in the robbery. It is clear this was a targeted crime and involved participants in the local Kamloops drug trade.
All investigative information will be forwarded to the British Columbia Prosecution Service for consideration of appropriate charges. Numerous serious charges are expected against the suspect arrested in Kelowna.
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