A Bowden man is in custody facing 10 serious Criminal Code charges following a domestic assault in Penhold that included knife-wielding threats and a subsequent police pursuit ending with the suspect crashing into a moving CP train.
A Bowden man is in custody facing 10 serious Criminal Code charges following a domestic assault in Penhold that included knife-wielding threats and a subsequent police pursuit ending with the suspect crashing into a moving CP train.
RCMP said members from the Innisfail detachment responded to a domestic assault complaint in Penhold at about 7:15 p.m. on Aug. 5.
"The caller indicated she had been assaulted by her boyfriend and he allegedly smashed the windows of her truck. I don't know if they were at the residence or elsewhere," said RCMP Cpl. Hal Turnbull, a spokesperson for the police force's Alberta K Division headquarters in Edmonton.
When police arrived, a lone male was on the scene brandishing a knife, said Turnbull.
"After the (police) members arrived he jumped into a vehicle and fled," he said, adding the man drove south on Highway 2A. "There was a pursuit and during the course of the pursuit the man turned off the highway sharply and crashed into a CP train. Yes, it (train) was moving."
RCMP members managed to pull the male to safety. He was taken to hospital, treated and arrested, said Turnbull.
"Obviously it was nothing that kept him in the hospital," said Turnbull of the minor nature of the man's injuries.
In the meantime, a small fire resulted from the crash and firefighters from both Innisfail and Penhold were called to the scene. Dean Clark, chief of the Innisfail Fire Department, said when firefighters arrived, the suspect's vehicle was "fully engulfed". He said it took five minutes to extinguish the blaze.
The crash, which is also being investigated by CP Police, resulted in the brief precautionary rerouting of traffic on Highway 2A.
Cpl. Laurel Scott, a K Division spokesperson, said the 29-year-old female victim from the domestic assault is recovering from minor injuries.
RCMP have charged Geoffrey Charles Donaldson, 35, with forcible confinement, two counts of assault, uttering threats, three counts of assault with a weapon, mischief under $5,000, flight from police and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle.
Donaldson, who recently moved to Penhold from Bowden, is in custody and was scheduled to appear in Red Deer provincial court on Aug. 15.
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RCMP Cpl. Hal Turnbull
"There was a pursuit and during the course of the pursuit the man turned off the highway sharply and crashed into a CP train."
