New West taxi carjacking, police chase ends in arrest

A dramatic police chase that shut down a section of 6th Street in New Westminster has resulted in one arrest.

According to police, multiple 911 calls came in just after 1:30 p.m. Wednesday. Sgt. Andrew Leaver says callers reported a “taxi driving erratically in the Uptown neighbourhood.”

“Multiple 911 callers telling us that pedestrians are running out of the way, that vehicles are being struck, so our officers located the vehicle and were able to block it in,” he explained.

Leaver says this is believed to have been “a situation of a carjacking,” adding, “don’t believe that to be the cab driver.” 

The cab in question belongs to Royal City Taxi, which confirms to CityNews that one of its drivers was taken to hospital in relation to the incident. They said the driver is expected to be okay. The company did not provide any further information.

Huge police takedown in New Westminster of out of control taxi ramming other vehicles. pic.twitter.com/1VXoV96UFt

— Sportsfaucet (@sportsfaucet) May 17, 2023

The chase ended in the area of 6th Street between Princess and Hamilton streets. Videos shared on social media captured the dynamic chase playing out, with one piece of footage showing the taxi U-turning in an intersection before police vehicles close in on it.

Another video was captured showing officers pulling the driver out of the vehicle by force before they were shoved to the ground.

“This is a very busy area of our city. Just given the time of day, multiple pedestrians around, lots of vehicles, potential for a lot serious injuries,” Leaver said, noting the chase happened “in various blocks throughout the city.”

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The person who was arrested was taken to the hospital with “minor injuries.”

It’s still unclear what happened before the reported carjacking.

“We want to know what happened before, during, after, anyone who saw anything is encouraged to call us. Obviously, we want to know why this happened,” Leaver said.

“There’s going to be people that were almost struck, there’s going to be people that had to move out of the way. Maybe they did get hit by this person, and we’d love to hear from them if they haven’t already contacted our investigators.”

‘People were screaming and quite afraid’

Anthony Smith says he lives right where the police chase ended.

“There’s been construction outside for about two weeks now … so they’ve got cones outside and, to be honest, there’s been a crash into the cones about every three or four days since they put them up. So I heard a crash outside and I went running out to see who had crashed into the cones and it was actually a taxi cab crashing into other vehicles this time,” Smith told CityNews.

“Police weren’t there at first — at first it was just the taxi crashing into other vehicles and people were screaming and quite afraid. There was one cop that responded and he was chasing him, but they went south toward the New West Pier direction and I couldn’t see him anymore. A few minutes went by and then all of a sudden the taxi comes back up the street with about 10 police cars chasing behind.”

Smith says he’s only ever seen this kind of thing on TV, adding it was surreal to see this all happen.

He admits the chase happening so close to home was “scary.”

Here is some close up shots of the Cab

Pinned.

Several civilians waiting to get vehicles damage catalogued by the Police. pic.twitter.com/Y8CmRACijW

— Sportsfaucet (@sportsfaucet) May 17, 2023

Another person tells CityNews she heard some commotion in the area before witnessing a cab ram into two other vehicles.

“And then I see an ambulance, I see a whole bunch of people standing on the corner, I look over at the construction site and I see those guys all running and I go, something’s wrong,” she explained.

“Then I see the taxi come down on 6th (Street) to the corner of Princess and he whips a (U-turn) and then you hear all these people yelling, there’s more police turn up.”

Police aren’t able to say yet just how much damage was done. They are urging people who saw what happened or who were affected to reach out to investigators.

“We’re still in the early stages of the investigation but we do know that there’s going to be quite a bit of property damage. If your vehicle’s been struck, if you know of one, please call in and let us know,” Leaver said.

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