Mounties open fire on the streets of Surrey after two cruisers rammed

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Mounties had to open fire Friday on the streets of Surrey after a suspect pick-up truck rammed a pair of police officers as it slammed into two police vehicles while trying to flee the area in British Columbia's second-largest city.

But no one was hit by gunfire, and the officers and one of three suspects suffered non-life threatening, soft-tissue injuries during the lunch-hour incident southeast of Vancouver, the RCMP said.

The chaotic incident began after plainclothes police officers tried to stop the suspect vehicle. Inspector Bruce Stuart, in an interview, declined to provide details of what drew police interest to the vehicle and its occupants except to say that RCMP drug-section and auto-theft investigators were on scene.

"It was a very violent ramming," Insp. Stuart said. "The amount of damage done to those two police cars was very significant and the members were struck by the vehicle as it was trying to ram its way."

Insp. Stuart said the officers were at risk, noting police vehicles were massively damaged and police struggling to confine and stop the pick-up truck. "Any time you have got members who are trying to box and potentially get in or out of the way and you've got a big heavy vehicle smashing into them, there's serious risk there."

He said the officers did what they needed to. "At the end of the day, everything, I would say, worked out as well as it could – minor injuries, thank goodness, for our members and minor injuries for those involved."

A total three suspects – two males and a female -  were taken into custody. One was treated for a soft-tissue injury then placed in custody.

Insp. Stuart said it was unclear how the suspect was injured, but it could have occurred during the ramming or while they were taken into custody.

Insp. Stewart said the provincial Independent Investigations Office had declined to assert an interest in the file. IIO spokesperson Wendy Kilpatrick said, in an interview, Friday's confrontation does not fall into its mandate of investigating police incidents involving death or serious harm. Insp. Stuart said that Langley RCMP had come in to look at whether professional standards were upheld in the incident.

The serious-crimes unit of the Surrey RCMP is conducting an investigation into the incident.