BURNABY, B.C. — The RCMP were searching for a driver who they say fled a badly damaged stolen vehicle on Monday after it crashed into a parked police cruiser and injured two officers in Burnaby, B.C.
Cpl. Mike Kalanj said police received a call just before 11:30 a.m. about a possible impaired driver and an officer responded.
But he says before the police officer could engage the vehicle, it fled into oncoming traffic and the officer determined that a pursuit would be too dangerous.
Minutes later, he said the vehicle crashed into a police cruiser that was pulled over at the side of a road, injuring two male officers who were standing nearby.
The officers work for the Lower Mainland Integrated Police Dog Service and one is an RCMP member and the other a member of the Abbotsford Police Department.
They were being treated in hospital for serious but non-life threatening injuries, and police want to speak to anyone who may have witnessed the collision.
Kalanj said the vehicle sped away from the scene and about an hour later police found the trashed car — which had been reported stolen — but the driver was gone.
He did not have much information about the two injured officers but he said officers who work for the dog service tend to be experienced.
"I don't know when they're going to released," he told a news conference Monday afternoon.
"But I know they're doing a lot better than what was originally reported a few hours ago."
Police have no information to believe the suspect targeted the officers, he added
The car is a white, later model Toyota Camry with dark tinted windows, which Kalanj said prevented police from getting a good look at the driver.
He said police are trying to develop a description of the driver through surveillance video but they also want anyone who saw anything suspicious to come forward.
Kalanj thanked a member of the public who spotted the damaged Camry and called police, allowing officers to find the vehicle.
It is "absolutely" traumatizing to hear of any police officer being hurt, he said.
"That's why I ask that anyone who has seen anything to please come forward. They were police officers. It could've been anyone. It could've been your brother, your uncle, your mom, your dad," he said.
"They weren't doing anything and they got hit by a vehicle for no reason."