Video posted to Facebook shows a group surround a truck as a man inside “frantically tries to hotwire it,” refusing to budge even when police arrive.
A 19-year-old man was facing six charges by Tuesday afternoon.
Greg Johnson was grabbing some lunch at the Subway in the area of Mayfield Road and Stony Plain Road in west Edmonton Monday afternoon when he said the owner told him a man was outside trying to steal his truck.
“I look out the window and there’s guys hanging out at his truck, so I headed outside to see what was going on,” Johnson told Global News on Tuesday.
“When I looked out the window, I thought, ‘This doesn’t happen every day. This is an interesting situation. There is a guy actually trying to hotwire a vehicle and they’re guarding the door and he didn’t seem to care,’ so I figured it was worthy of taking a shot.”
The video shows five people around a truck and a man inside, who Johnson said was looking to steal the truck.
“The guy who wanted to steal the vehicle is in the process of trying to hotwire it. He had a fantastic work ethic and really should be doing something else — because he never quit the entire time — until the police arrived.”
In the video, one man can be seen on the phone, seemingly calling police and providing a description of the man inside.
In a second video, four police officers arrive and demand the suspect in the truck open the doors. Police can be heard telling him to drop a knife and can be seen breaking the driver window. It appears police used a Taser on the man before placing him in handcuffs.
Edmonton police said Tuesday afternoon the man had “multiple-edged weapons” with him inside the locked vehicle.
A woman, who claims to be the man’s older sister, can be heard yelling at him to stop resisting.
“You kind of feel for the lad,” Johnson said. “You don’t know what he’s dealt with in his life.”
Police said the man was believed to be under the influence of drugs at the time, so EMS was called. Paramedics took the man to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
He was treated and released into police custody.
Police said the investigation showed he had three edged weapons and firearm ammunition on him at the time.
Brady Alook is facing charges of attempted theft of a motor vehicle, possess weapon dangerous to the public, possess break-and-enter tools, possession of a controlled substance, resist arrest and breach of recognizance.
Police said force was used in this circumstance because police needed to “arrest the suspect quickly to prevent the accused from starting the vehicle, causing risk to himself or the general public by entering into a criminal flight.”
The statement said the Edmonton Police Service believes the officers’ use of force was appropriate.
Watch below: Man, 19, facing multiple charges after dramatic video of attempted vehicle theft caught on camera
Johnson is surprised at the spread of his video online. Just before 4 p.m., the video had been shared over 2,300 times.
“It’s crazy. I’ve never experienced anything like that. I just threw it out there for my pals, but the shares have been going crazy.”
The truck was still parked outside the Subway Tuesday afternoon, with plastic taped over the broken driver-side window.
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