One of the Olds RCMP detachment's newest members played a major role in catching a pickup truck whose occupants were wanted for allegedly ramming a police vehicle in Calgary as well as other criminal offences in the city.
Cpl. Shawn Morgan, who joined the detachment in August, heard the conversations of police pursuing a Silver Ford F-350 truck on Highway 2 over the scanner at about 1:15 p.m. on Sept. 27.
So he and Const. S.D. Bereza went to the interchange of highways 2 and 27 to set up a spike belt across the northbound lanes of Highway 2 to help stop the northbound vehicle.
He said the Calgary Police Service HAWCS helicopter was following the truck and alerting police services north of Calgary about the pursuit while providing information to ground units on the highway that were staying well back and out of sight of the suspect vehicle.
“The helicopter was instrumental in keeping everyone safe,” Morgan said.
He said he took up position in the median between the southbound and northbound lanes of the highway with Bereza on the east shoulder and, although he was hidden in the median, was ready to deploy the belt in front of the truck when it drove past them.
The helicopter alerted Morgan and Bereza when the truck was about to drive under the interchange and Morgan threw out the belt, which damaged the truck's front tires.
The belt contains hollow surgical steel spikes that create a controlled release of air when they penetrate a tire so that a driver can still retain control of a vehicle to pull off to the side of a roadway.
Despite the damage to the tires, however, the truck continued northbound on its rims and did not stop until a point south of Red Deer.
Once the vehicle was no longer drivable, the 28-year-old woman driving the truck fled on foot.
The RCMP police dog service caught the woman as she was about to run into oncoming traffic.
She and a 28-year-old man in the truck, both from Calgary, were taken into police custody for the alleged criminal offences and numerous outstanding warrants.
A civilian vehicle unrelated to the pursuit did receive tire damage when it drove over the spike belt as Morgan was trying to retract it at the interchange.
The vehicle was towed into Olds, he said, and police paid for the repair of the tires.
No one was hurt.
