Arrest following dramatic carjacking, fiery crash in Vancouver

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – It’s been a very busy couple of days for Vancouver Police. Just hours after a violent, random home invasion, homicide and shooting, investigators are now looking into a dramatic carjacking.

Police say around 7:15 p.m., a Black Top Cab was stopped at West Hastings Street and Carrall Street when a man jumped into the taxi and forced the driver from the van. The driver was hit multiple times, but wasn’t seriously hurt. The thief then sped off, southbound on Carrall Street.

Shortly after, police received a call of a cab speeding in the area of Prior Street and the East Georgia Viaduct. Police also received a call of a crash between a taxi and another car at the intersection of Clark Drive and Venables Street.

When members got there, they found the cab in flames and a man who witnessed the crash and attempted carjacking holding onto the suspect who was on the ground. “Officers determined the man being held had exited the taxi and attempted to carjack a vehicle that was stopped for a red light, westbound on Venables Street at Clark Drive. The driver of that vehicle, a 40-year-old woman from North Vancouver, was not injured, but was extremely shaken up in the ordeal,” says VPD Staff Sergeant Randy Fincham.

He adds it’s lucky no one was seriously injured as police try to figure out the motive. “In speaking with that citizen who stepped forward to help out, as well as another woman who was at the scene, police determined that after the collision with the taxi, the man who was driving that taxi jumped out of [it] and attempted to jump into another car. This was a car that was facing westbound on Venables Street at Clark Drive. [He] jumped into the backseat of that car, had a conversation with the driver and then jumped into the front of that car and tried to force that driver to drive away. Fortunately, this man was able to jump in, remove the suspect from the driver’s seat of that car that was still occupied by this woman as well. And he held onto him until police arrived.”

A 34-year-old man from Burnaby is in custody. “At this point charges have not been laid as of yet. We are looking at a variety of charges at this point in relation to the original theft of a taxi, possibly a robbery and as well as the attempted theft of a second vehicle at Clark Drive and Venables Street in relation to the woman who was occupying that vehicle at the time,” explains Fincham.

This is the latest in a violent string of incidents in Vancouver. Early Tuesday morning, a man was woken by somebody stabbing him in his own bed during a home invasion around Ferndale Street and Lakewood Drive. The suspect in that case was caught.

A couple of hours later officers were then called to the city’s Downtown Eastside where a man got into some sort of scuffle and was stabbed repeatedly. He collapsed and died shortly after.

A man was also injured after shots were fired at a hotel on East Hastings Street.

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