REVELSTOKE, B.C. — A 26-year-old woman has been arrested after the RCMP say one of its officers was pepper sprayed during a traffic stop on Sunday outside Revelstoke, B.C.
The Mounties say the officer stopped a sport utility vehicle that was towing an enclosed trailer for a Motor Vehicle Act violation on Highway 1.
RCMP Cpl. Jesse O'Donaghey says the officer was sprayed as she interacted with the woman at the driver's side window.
As the officer dealt with the disabling effects of the pepper spray, O'Donaghey says a male passenger got out and the suspect fled in the vehicle.
Police say they determined that the passenger had been hitchhiking when he was picked up by the woman.
The RCMP say in a news release that the woman was "emotionally distraught, unco-operative and failed to comply with police commands" when she was found inside the trailer a few kilometres away near the Giant Cedars Boardwalk.
"She was eventually physically taken into police custody," the Mounties say in the release on Monday. "She was unharmed."
Police say a search of the vehicle found a loaded crossbow, pepper spray and a knife.
The woman, who is from Maple Ridge, remains in custody and the RCMP say she faces a number of potential criminal charges.
"This shocking situation highlights the inherent dangers that frontline police officers face each and every day they go to work," Staff Sgt. Kurt Grabinsky, the RCMP's detachment commander in Revelstoke, said in the statement.
"This officer remained focused on her duty to protect and serve the public by continuing her investigation and relaying important details to other officers in order to safely apprehend the woman who posed a potential risk to herself and others."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 8, 2020.
