At approximately 2145 hours a twenty-four-year-old woman had just gotten into her car in the Starlight Casino Parking Lot. Before she started the car, a male suspect approached and smashed out her front passenger window with a “Club”.
The suspect reached into the victim’s car and grabbed her purse before fleeing to a stolen vehicle that was stopped nearby.
Several minutes later the New Westminster Police located the stolen vehicle in the 1400 block of 10th Avenue. The vehicle continued east on 10th Avenue and numerous police units were enroute to assist. The police began to follow the vehicle and activated the emergency lights and attempted to pull over the stolen vehicle.
The stolen vehicle pulled slowly into the Petro Can as if to stop and then fled southbound onto 8th St. The police officer had observed the suspect vehicle drive through a red traffic light without stopping. He then immediately advised that he was discontinuing the pursuit and he pulled over on 8th Street at Hamilton.
The suspect vehicle continued southbound on 8th Street, entering the intersection at 6th Avenue on a red light where it collided with a westbound vehicle. The impact caused this vehicle to spin into a Ford pick up truck which was travelling east on 6th Avenue and waiting to turn left onto 8th Street.
After hitting the first vehicle, the suspect vehicle also spun out of control, striking a third vheicle which had been parked, occupied, facing southbound in the 500 block of 8th Street.
Two of the drivers were taken to RCH by Ambulance. Their injuries were fortunately very minor and they were both treated and released.
When the suspect vehicle came to a stop, witnesses reported that two occupants immediately exited and fled on foot. The driver is described as a caucasian male and the passenger is described by some witnesses as an Asian male while others state the passenger was female.
Although a perimeter was established very quickly and Air One was on-scene within five minutes, the suspects were not located. The search by the police service dog was complicated by large numbers of pedestrians in the area.