A man who was pulled over by RCMP and then fled in a police vehicle despite efforts to Taser and shoot at him is in custody facing charges.
Red Deer RCMP’s Crime Reduction Team was investigating a stolen pickup at about 11:15 p.m., Tuesday and were able to stop the vehicle with a tire deflation device in the driveway of a rural home on C&E Trail.
When the driver got out an altercation with police followed.
“The suspect then jumped into a police car and in an attempt to stop the suspect, an officer deployed a Conductive Energy Weapon (CEW or Taser), but the CEW was not effective,” said RCMP in a news release on Thursday morning.
“The suspect put the vehicle into reverse, almost hitting officers. An officer discharged their service pistol but did not hit the suspect.”
Police pursued the suspect into Innisfail and then onto Highway 2 northbound. Another spike belt was laid and the suspect crashed the police vehicle and was taken into custody.
The suspect was taken to hospital to be assessed and was later released. He remains in custody and charges are pending.
No police officers were injured.
RCMP said they are investigating the incident.
“The Alberta RCMP believes in processes that seek the facts and it’s important that processes taken to assess the actions of all those involved, including the police, are fair, transparent, and defendable.
“This is why, as soon as we became aware of this incident involving potential lethal force, we immediately initiated our internal review process and notified the Director of Law Enforcement. The Director of Law Enforcement assigned the investigation to the RCMP.”
RCMP said they plan to provide an update.
