Two men from Alberta were arrested Saturday evening in a high-risk take down in West Kelowna after evading police.
RCMP were notified of a stolen pickup truck occurring along Ironridge Drive just before 11 p.m. on Saturday. Marked and unmarked police officers reported to the area and quickly spotted the stolen grey Ford F350 in the Shannon Lake neighbourhood.
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“Officers engaged their emergency lights and sirens in an effort to conduct a traffic stop with the freshly stolen pickup,” Kelowna RCMP spokesman Cpl. Jesse O’Donaghey said. “The stolen pickup truck failed to stop for police, instead accelerating at a high rate of speed, placing the general public, responding police officers and themselves at risk. As a result, our officers disengaged their pursuit of the vehicle.”
Police found the truck again as it was headed along Highway 97 towards Kelowna. Officers attempted to corner the truck in a dead end off of Sneena Road, but the suspect vehicle was thrown in to reverse at a high rate of speed towards police, before taking the bridge into Kelowna.
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Police deployed a spike belt on the bridge deck in the westbound lane, but it was unsuccessful.
The driver of the stolen truck high centred the F-350 while driving through fields along Old Ferry Wharf Road in attempts to escape a road block, O’Donaghey said in a release.
Police arrested a 23-year-old man and a 30-year-old man, both from Cold Lake, Alta. Two loaded sawed-off shotguns were found inside the stolen vehicle.
Both men are to appear in court today.