B.C.’s police watchdog says Burnaby Mounties were not to blame for a police-involved rollover crash last Halloween that left a teen with fractures to his ribs, shoulder blade, collarbone and nose after he was ejected from a stolen van police were following.
On Oct. 31, 2017 at about 11:10 p.m., an officer patrolling in an unmarked police vehicle spotted a suspicious van parked at the tennis court parking lot off Patterson Avenue, according to an Independent Investigations Office report released Wednesday.
When the officer turned on the police vehicle’s emergency lights, the driver of the van drove away over grass, off a sidewalk and onto the roadway, according to the officer.
The officer didn’t pursue the van but did share a description and location with other officers in the area.
About half an hour later, an officer in another police vehicle spotted the van and broadcast its location.
A third officer in a RCMP pickup headed to the area to join the search, and, as the pickup headed north on MacPherson Avenue, it collided with the van, which had blown through a stop sign at Dorset Street, according police witnesses.
The van then spun into an unoccupied parked vehicle, rolled and landed on its roof.
“All available evidence indicates that (the affected person’s) injury is the result of his failure to stop at a stop sign while attempting to evade the police,” concluded IIO chief civilian director Ron MacDonald.
While officers did speed during their pursuit, MacDonald concluded they were “engaged in the lawful execution of their duty;” traffic in the industrial area had been light; and the roads had been dry.
“While the speeds were over the speed limit, they were not dangerously so,” MacDonald said.
He said the evidence collected around the incident did not provide grounds to consider any charges against any of the officers involved.
Charges have been laid against the driver of the van, though.
Christian Keeler, 19, was charged last week with three counts of dangerous driving, auto theft, possession of a break-and-enter tool and identity fraud.
