Five city officers injured, three people charged

Arrest turns violent in downtown Victoria

Five police officers were injured and three people are facing charges after an arrest in downtown Victoria turned violent.

Victoria police received a report of an assault in progress in the 400 block of Johnson Street just before 6 p.m. Friday, said police spokesman Const. Matt Rutherford. Initially, a lone officer attended. He was making an arrest when things got ugly.

“The first member on scene arrested one male who was in that original assault, and the other two people that were involved became hostile and violent to that officer,” Rutherford said.

“So he called for assistance and, of course, a majority of police cars in Victoria went to help. And in that melee, [three] other officers got hurt.”

Rutherford did not believe any weapons were involved. But it didn’t end there. After being treated for his injuries at hospital and taken to the VicPD cells, one of the arrested men became violent and assaulted a jail staff member, Rutherford said.

“Some time within him entering cells and him going to his cell, he assaulted the jail staff member,” Rutherford said.

All of the officers were treated at hospital for their injuries and discharged.

The staff member was taken to hospital and has been released.

Asked if the incident was unusually violent for downtown Victoria, Rutherford said: “It’s unusual in the sense that five officers got hurt. We deal with violent confrontations on occasion, but this is especially concerning, that five of our members got hurt.”

Rutherford said a couple of the officers will be returning to work right away, but he did not know the status of all involved.

Police are recommending: • one count of assaulting a police officer against a 28-year-old Victoria woman • three counts of assaulting a police officer and one count of assault causing bodily harm of a police officer against a 25-year-old Esquimalt man • one count of assaulting a police officer and one count of causing a disturbance against a 31-year-old Saanich man.

The woman and the Saanich man were released from custody Saturday morning. The Esquimalt man remains in custody and is scheduled to appear in court on Monday.