Police in Coquitlam are looking for a woman who crashed her car in an attempt to evade arrest Thursday, injuring another driver.
Officers were trying to arrest the suspect near Coquitlam Centre when the she fled in a maroon Mercedes-Benz, speeding out of the mall parking lot onto Johnson Street where she crashed into a car before her own vehicle landed in a hedge.
“The lady, she passed from that side, took the wrong way, came here [onto Johnston Street], hit this white car and went into the bushes over there,” said Ali Bossani, who witnessed the event.
The male driver of the white Nissan the suspect struck was seen being loaded onto a stretcher and taken to hospital. He was the sole occupant of the vehicle. Dan Herbranson, a spokesperson for the Ridge Meadows RCMP, says the man was injured, but he doesn’t believe it will be life-threatening.
Bossani estimates the woman was going at 100 or 120 kilometres per hour down Johnson Street. He also reported seeing her hide something in the bushes.
“She came out of the car and had something in her hand. She tried to hide it in the bushes over there,” he said. “She put her hand a couple of times, then she left it over there.”
After that, Bossani said he saw the woman run southbound along Johnson Street before ducking into the entrance of a complex and disappearing from view.
Herbranson said police weren’t responding to a 911 call, but were trying to make the arrest as part of an ongoing investigation, adding that the encounter “went a little sideways.”
He declined to give details about the nature of the original investigation or why police were trying to arrest the woman.
With files from CTV Vancouver’s Nafeesa Karim.
