Stolen Truck Chase Ends in Shooting

Sunday, January 20, 2008 03:21 PM

Prince George RCMP say a 39-year-old suspected truck thief was shot this morning, after trying to ram his way out of a blockade of police vehicles.

Constable Gary Godwin says two officers suffered head and neck injuries when their vehicles were hit on a dead-end rural road, south of the city. Godwin says two others, fearing for their lives, shot at the stolen Ford F350 Diesel, wounding the suspect. He’s currently in Prince George Regional Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

The pursuit began at 3:30 this morning when officers began following the stolen vehicle in the downtown core. The vehicle then fled south of the city. Officers set up a spike belt on Cummings Road, flattening the front two tires, before the vehicle hit a dead-end on Bloom Road.

Constable Godwin says the truck then turned and started coming towards the police vehicles, hitting several. He says officers will only utilize their sidearms if they’re fearing for life and limb and they realized they would have to use their weapons in order to stop the vehicle.

Godwin says the suspect may not be a Prince George resident, but he has been in the city for a while and is known to police. The North District Major Crimes Unit is now investigating, with several charges being contemplated. Constable Godwin says the ramming of police vehicles could translate into a charge of attempted murder.

As for the damage total, Godwin says it’s into the thousands. One RCMP cruiser was completely totalled, another was heavily damaged and the specialized vehicles are worth approximately $30- to $35-thousand dollars.

Previous Story - Next Story

Email |

Print |

Facebook |

Twitter |

Digg |

Del.icio.us

Posted on Sunday, January 20, 2008 03:21 PM in News by 250 News

Return to Home

Comments

Posted by: Outwest on January 20 2008 4:24 PM

using a stolen truck as weapon ,lucky he is alive, hope he goes to jail for a long time ,so we all will be save from him.

Posted by: diplomat on January 20 2008 4:27 PM

"...the specialized vehicles are worth approximately $30- to $35-thousand dollars."

$ 70,000 plus GST and PST. Make him work for the damage on a chain gang, 10 cents per hour. At $200 annually earnings that should keep him there for quite a few decades.

No early parole, please. Oh, make sure to charge him with two counts of attempted murder as well.

Can't say I envy the police for what they have to deal with almost on a daily basis.

Posted by: realitysetsin on January 20 2008 5:02 PM

Sounds like a real class act.

3 strikes.

Posted by: local_radio_guy on January 20 2008 6:17 PM

Talked to a witness today who told me that an officer knocked this guy out with a shot to the head with the butt end of a shotgun when he tried to fight off the officers as they pulled him out of the truck. No tasers needed here. Trust me. Thats a night this guy will remember forever. Awesome job from the RCMP on this one taking this guy down. Good to see our Police can be tough when they need to. I feel safer knowing that.

Posted by: Andyfreeze on January 20 2008 6:34 PM

See...it CAN be done without a Tazer!
Good job!

Posted by: thereasonableman on January 20 2008 6:52 PM

Probably high on crystal meth.

Posted by: realitysetsin on January 20 2008 7:06 PM

Andy are you suggesting you would rather be SHOT like this guy, than tazered?????

Holy.

Posted by: lmorg on January 20 2008 7:20 PM

Tasers dont go through windshields people! Bullets were needed, bullets were used. A taser could have been used after the suspect was pulled out of the vehicle as he was still fighting..even with a bullet wound. The clout to the back of the head with the butt of the shotgun could have actually resulted in more damage to the suspect than the taser. Plus a misfire could have happened. Not a good move. A basal skull fracture is almost always fatal.

Posted by: NMG on January 20 2008 7:38 PM

I suppose this just reiterates that stealing a vehicle and using it like a weapon against police officers is probably not a wise thing to do. Hope the constables are okay.

Posted by: Andyfreeze on January 20 2008 8:37 PM

No, I am not suggesting I would rather be shot...I am suggesting that cops CAN bring down the bad guys without the Tazer.
Just like they used to,before they ever had Tazers!
And it's pretty hard to stop a truck with a Tazer!
And if they HAD shot and killed this guy,I guess that would be his own fault.
They did what they had to do,and they did it well!

Posted by: Chester on January 20 2008 9:37 PM

Well done, congratulations, lock him up, no parole while he serves maximum sentence with maximum charges. Tough luck, but thems the consequences. Time to pay up. No more mister nice guys. Chester

Posted by: lmorg on January 20 2008 10:19 PM

Andyfreeze: a tazer still would have been appropriate however, in close quarters like pulling the person out of a vehicle , it would not have been the best to use at the time unless in touch mode. Plus the dude may have had on a heavy winter jacket which could have reduced the prong's penetrability.
Before the tazer more people would have gotten hurt and of course the bad guy got butted in the back of the head with a rifle butt. The chance to do more damage is there as opposed to the tazer.
You would have had to be there in order to call the shots instead of simply saying "see, they brought the guy down without the tazer"
Remember, the guy was also shot.

Posted by: realitysetsin on January 20 2008 10:40 PM

Andy, the RCMP estimates that 2,000 lives have been SAVED by using tazers. Their angle is that prior to tazers they had to use guns instead of tazers.

Posted by: steeliepete on January 20 2008 10:51 PM

look on the bright side, he can get clean and rehab in a couple of months and be back on the street as a stand up citizen. I really appreciate the effectiveness of our system.

Posted by: red2b on January 21 2008 6:57 AM

Good thing it was a Ford. More damage would have happened had the truck been a Chev.

Posted by: Eagleone on January 21 2008 8:43 AM

We need more of these dumb criminals so the rambocops can get their adrenaline fix and not feel the need to be cowards and use tazers on people.

Posted by: Andyfreeze on January 21 2008 9:05 AM

I am not disputing your argument Imorg/reality,but I still think the tazer is over used.
Cops used to corral unarmed bad guys all the time before they had tazers.
When I was young,you knew that if you didn't do what the boys told you to do,it was really going to hurt.
And they didn't have to shoot you to get your cooperation either!
They were some tough dudes!
And if you had a gun,club,or a knife,yes they just might shoot you!
You knew that too.
But unarmed...no,they pounded you into submission,and the "respect" level was much higher!
:-)

Posted by: Harbinger on January 21 2008 11:49 AM

Does he get a private room in the hospital? After an intense operation, I sure wouldn't want to be in a shared room and have to listen to rattling handcuffs all night while I'm trying to recover.

Posted by: realitysetsin on January 21 2008 6:29 PM

Any I would agree that there probably needs to be more controls around tazer use.

However when it is deployed I tend to side with the police over some criminal. Where I do get uneasy is when they use it on someone with mental health issues, like the incident at the airport in Van.

At the end of the day though, no police officer should be expected to get hurt at work.

The difference between back when you were a boy (as you put it heh heh) and today I think is largely due to drugs. Especially meth.

Posted by: chilako-pete on January 21 2008 10:00 PM

Eagleone, must be nice to chirp from the sideline. Why don't you grow a pair and go out for a ride-along on a Friday night?