SURREY — A Surrey man is facing charges of robbery, assault causing bodily harm, obstructing a police officer, driving while disqualified and driving while prohibited following a carjacking on King George Boulevard.
Metro Vancouver Transit Police arrested Pedro Frank Cisneros, 43, for the Oct. 22 incident, which spokeswoman Anne Drennan said "put the lives of a citizen and a Transit Police Officer at risk."
Cisneros is expected to appear in Surrey provincial court on Wednesday.
Drennan said Transit Police officers were checking fares at King George SkyTrain Station when a man with a bogus transit pass ran away into the intersection of 98th Avenue and the George, jumped into the passenger side of a pickup truck and ordered the driver to drive away.
"As pursuing officers approached the truck, the suspect pushed the driver out of the vehicle and attempted to drive away," Drennan said.
She said one officer got into the passenger side and tried to stop the truck while his partner pepper-sprayed the suspect who, unfazed, sped through the busy intersection, pitching the officer into traffic.
"He then sped away," Drennan said. "The driver of the pickup truck was traumatized, but uninjured."
The officer who's been ejected from the truck was treated at hospital for cuts and bruises.
"As the intersection at the time of the incident was extremely busy, there was a strong possibility of either of these persons being hit by other vehicles. Fortunately alert drivers saw what was going on and stopped until safe to move."
The stolen truck was found latter, in Surrey. Drennan said that at the time of Cisneros' arrest he was wanted on a warrant concerning a Conditional Sentence Order (CSO) for uttering threats and a warrant out of Oregon for obstructing police.
"He was also bound by a five-year Canada-wide order of prohibition from driving a motor vehicle."
tzytaruk@thenownewspaper.com