Police say a 33-year-old man was arrested after climbing a tree in his attempts to evade officers when Surrey RCMP responded to a domestic dispute Wednesday night.
RCMP Inspector Dale Carr said police were called to a “domestic violence” incident and subsequently, a man “caused a foot pursuit and eventually climbed the roof of a house nearby, eventually climbing up into a tree.”
It happened in Newton near 76th Avenue and Hurdle Crescent, around 8:45 p.m.
“We have the Lower Mainland ERT (Emergency Response Team) here, they have an aerial extrication team, we’re going to try and negotiate the individual to come down on his own and we’re working on strategies on how we can get him out,” Carr said at the scene. “Certainly, he’s cold, he’s been up there for a couple of hours.”
Carr added: “We’re hoping we can get him down here, and talk some sense into him to come on down.”
A Black Press freelancer at the scene said the man was 60 feet up the tree for hours.
Surrey RCMP Corporal Elenore Sturko told the Now-Leader Thursday afternoon that the man was arrested just after 12:30 a.m. but added she was “unable to find on the file exactly what time he came out of the tree.”
“He was taken to the hospital to be checked, and then taken into police custody,” Sturko noted. “He was arrested for assault, theft and breach of conditions.”
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