Five charged after police allegedly shot at from speeding SUV

The RCMP says officers’ lives were in danger when the occupants of a speeding SUV shot at a police vehicle on New Year’s Day.

The incident happened in a rural area near the Onion Lake Cree Nation, which is near the Alberta border about 50 kilometres north of Lloydminster.

According to a media release, someone called police after a black SUV drove through their yard, smashing through a fence. RCMP officers from Onion Lake later spotted a suspect vehicle speeding on Highway 17 and followed it onto a local road.

The release says that’s when officers saw a “long-barreled firearm” emerge from one of the SUV’s windows. It was allegedly fired at the police vehicle several times, but the Mounties kept following.

Police say the vehicle stopped in front of the Onion Lake Cree Nation High School, where the man who was driving and a passenger ran into a field. Two officers chased them down while other officers arrested the man and two women who stayed in the SUV.

“The pursuing police officers located and arrested the male passenger in a nearby baseball field and the male driver hiding inside a garbage bin,” the RCMP media release said. “All five occupants of the black SUV, later identified as local street gangs associates, were taken into custody.”

Inside the vehicle, two rifles, a sawed-off shotgun, and a sawed-off rifle were found, along with different types of bullets.

“This is a reminder that policing is dangerous,” RCMP Insp. Joshua Graham, who oversaw the investigation, said in the release. “When an incident starts involving firearms … I naturally worry about the safety of my officers involved. Then I remember that we are all in good hands.

“Every day, I see several examples of good policing like this across our province, where our officers are successful at stopping a threat while controlling the risks and ensuring officer and public safety.”

All five people in the SUV are facing significant charges, including:

• Discharge of a firearm with intent to endanger life;
• Being an occupant of a motor vehicle knowing there was a firearm;
• Careless use of a firearm;
• Possession of a firearm without a licence;
• Possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose;
• Possession of a prohibited weapon; and,
• Assault of a police officer with a weapon.

The driver faces additional charges of flight from police and dangerous driving, while one of the women was also charged with firing a gun with intent to endanger life, being an occupant of a vehicle knowing there was a firearm in it, and assaulting a police officer with a weapon.