The Vancouver Sun
VANCOUVER, CANADA (CP) -- A dramatic police chase and gun battle ended Monday with one man dead and a woman in critical condition in hospital with multiple gunshot wounds.
It began around 6 a.m. with a report of a woman being shot by a man in the sleepy commuter community of Port Moody.
Witnesses said they heard a woman screaming, “Save me, save me,” and, “He’s got a gun,” as she ran down a street. At one point she used two bystanders as a human shield.
Jarod Allen watched the shooting unfold from his backyard.
He said the woman broke away from the bystanders and began running across the road when the suspect fired his gun.
“He shot at her a few times as she was crossing when someone stopped. I heard tires screech and saw some man stop. He just opened the door and she jumped in and he sped off,” Allen said.
“I don’t think (the driver) knew her. It was just somebody doing a good thing.”
Within seconds, police arrived at the scene and found the suspect crouching in the bushes. They ordered the man to stop, but he climbed into a black truck and sped off.
As many as four dozen shots were fired between police and the 47-year-old suspect, who was dressed in camouflage clothing. According to police he repeatedly fired at them with a gun while driving at a high speed down a busy highway through three Vancouver suburbs.
The chase ended in 15 kilometres away on a busy highway in Port Coquitlam after the man clipped a vehicle in an intersection and was then rammed off the road by a police officer.
A bystander was injured in the crash.
The police then engaged in a shootout as the man ran down the highway firing back at them.
“The suspect just got out of his truck and started shooting at police,’ said Tom Knatchbell, who witnessed the shootout as he waited for a bus.
“He was running up the road. Police just started shooting. It was like, whoa, pretty intense. Their doors were open and they were shooting away.’
The man died of his wounds.
Port Moody police spokesman Const. Brian Soles said the 34-year-old woman, who knew the suspect, had surgery Monday for several gunshot wounds.
“At this time I truly don’t know what the relationship was, although it’s clear that there was one between them and it wasn’t a random act,” Soles said.
Names of the dead man and injured woman have not been released.