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Victoria police box in truck after driver flees twice during Canada Day festivities

Bike patrol officers forced to leap from harm’s way on first encounter
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A driver faces potential charges after fleeing VicPD twice in a truck and camper on July 1. (Black Press Media file photo)

The hunt for an evasive truck driver pulling dangerous moves amid crowds on Canada Day ended without serious injury.

Two VicPD officers leap to safety on July 1 after a driver of a large pick-up truck attempted to flee a traffic stop, according to a news release.

Just after 4 p.m., bike officers were on patrol in James Bay when they were alerted by a motorist flagging an improperly parked vehicle impacting traffic in the 300-block of Dallas Road. The officers located a large truck and camper impeding northbound traffic and began looking for its driver. A witness told officers the truck had been parked for a couple of hours and the driver had left, so they called a tow truck.

Then they noticed someone standing across the street recording with their phone. That person approached officers, identified themselves as the truck’s owner and asked officers stop traffic so they could leave. VicPD said the officers repeatedly told the driver they were being detained but the individual started the truck, put it in gear and backed quickly from the parking stall. The officers were forced to leap out of the way, police said.

The driver left with the bike officers following from a distance, relaying the direction of travel.

A short time later, a patrol officer spotted the vehicle in the 300-block of Douglas Street and tried to pull the driver over using lights and the siren. The truck driver responded with what police described as an unsafe overtake of another vehicle, despite the crowds of pedestrians at hand for Canada Day. The officer did not pursue and radioed the truck’s last direction of travel to other officers.

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The vehicle was next reported being driven erratically on Blanshard Street, before turning left onto Pandora Avenue in the direction of the road closure area for the Canada Day celebrations at Ship Point. The driver stopped the truck in the 600-block of Pandora Avenue and was boxed in by VicPD and Integrated Canine Service officers. The driver was pulled from the truck and arrested.

The driver was released with a future court date for recommended charges of assault with a weapon, assaulting a police officer, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle and flight from police.

Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call VicPD at 250-995-7654 ext 1.

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