Dramatic arrest on West Kelowna street
A scene from the reality TV show Cops played out on the streets of West Kelowna Saturday afternoon.
The blaring police siren stopped as a black pickup pulled off the road in front of the Pineridge mobile home park on Boucherie Road. When the siren stopped, an RCMP officer stepped out of his car and yelled: “You are under arrest, put your hands up.”
“I just want to take care of my business,” the driver said as he got out of his truck. “Put your hands up! Put your hands up!” The driver put up his hands as he walked toward the police car.
“Get on the ground,” the RCMP officer yelled. “Get on ground!”
Just like on the reality TV show, the man, with his hands up, dropped to his knees and then stretched out on the pavement.
Moments later, a swarm of police cars descended on the scene near the Mission Hill bluffs. Traffic was reduced to a crawl in one lane as police vehicles were parked on the shoulder of the Westbank-bound lane.
A police officer pulled a rifle from the back of the pickup and checked to see whether it was loaded.
Another RCMP officer politely asked a spectator with a cellphone to back up.
“He is having the worst day of his life. Would you want your picture taken on the worst day of your life,” he asked.
The handcuffed man was taken away, and soon after, the police scene evaporated, just like on Cops.
Police aren’t giving out any information about the arrest.
“We aren’t able to comment on this investigation as it was a mental-health call,” Cpl. Jocelyn Noseworthy, media relations with the RCMP Kelowna detachment, wrote in an email.
“The driver has not been charged with any crime.”