Two charged after RCMP vehicles rammed, forced off road

Two people from Prince Edward Island were charged after a high-speed incident that police say damaged numerous RCMP vehicles — including two that are now undriveable.

According to the Mounties, the incident began Sunday at 9:25 a.m., when an officer from the Swift Current Municipal detachment found a stolen car at a business in that city.

Police said officers tried to stop the car, but it drove into and disabled the police vehicle. A second Swift Current Municipal officer found the car on the Trans-Canada Highway and also tried to stop it, but the vehicle forced the Mountie off the road.

The RCMP said the car then drove in the wrong direction on the Trans-Canada near Gull Lake at “extremely high speeds” as officers from the Swift Current Rural and Maple Creek detachments and the Saskatchewan RCMP’s Police Dog Services got involved.

The suspect car then went into Maple Creek before returning to the highway, where the RCMP had laid down a spike belt. The car drove over the belt and two tires were deflated, police said, but it kept going at high speed.

“Officers were soon after able to manoeuvre the car off-road and arrest the two occupants,” the Mounties said in a media release. “No police officers reported injuries. A number of police vehicles were damaged during this incident; two are no longer driveable.”

A 24-year-old man from Montague, P.E.I., and a 29-year-old woman from Charlottetown were charged with a variety of offences, including assaulting a police officer with a weapon, flight from a police officer, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000, and mischief over $5,000.

They’re to appear in Swift Current Provincial Court on Wednesday.