A 36-year-old South Vancouver Island man who rammed a police car and barricaded himself in a Coombs home for more than seven hours Tuesday morning was extracted by an RCMP Emergency Response Team (ERT) and has been arrested with recommendation of "a multitude of charges," RCMP reported.
This comes on the heels of an unrelated incident May 6 when a 40-year-old Errington man was pulled from his burning home and taken to hospital after a three-and-a-half-hour standoff with police.
The incident this week began at approximately 10 a.m. May 17 when Oceanside RCMP responded to reports of a suspicious red vehicle in the Coombs area. Officers located the vehicle near Alberni Highway and Winchester Road and attempted to stop it. The driver tried to flee the area in the vehicle and in the process rammed the side of the fully marked police cruiser. The suspicious male, the lone occupant of the vehicle, then fled the area on foot, Oceanside RCMP Cpl. Jesse Forman said.
RCMP Police Dog Services (PDS) were called in and arrived a short time later. The dog and handler tracked the male to a trailer park where the man had entered a mobile home. The man refused to come out of the residence and threatened violence, resulting in the ERT being called in an taking over the scene. The standoff did not end until 5:30 p.m., after the RCMP Emergency Response Team forced their way into the home and found the man alone in the home in which he had broken into, said Foreman. There were no injuries as a result of the arrest and the man is now in custody awaiting a first court appearance.
The man, whose last known address was described only as being “on Southern Vancouver Island”, is well-known to police and had several outstanding arrest warrants when taken into custody.
Charges under consideration include Possession of a Firearm, Break and Entry to a Residence, and Flight from Police.
“The Oceanside RCMP would like to thank the residents of the Coombs/Errington area as they were instrumental in making this investigation and eventual arrest possible,” said Foreman. “From the initial call of the suspicious vehicle, to the several eyewitness accounts and statements, the RCMP received full co-operation from the residents in the area.”
— NEWS Staff/Oceanside RCMP news release