Victoria Community Information

A July 9^th early morning impaired driving incident on Dallas Road saw a woman arrested and a vehicle removed from a pond a significant distance from the road way. Luckily, no one was physically injured in the incident.

An impaired driver’s vehicle left the road and ended up in a pond of Dallas Road

Statistics Canada released the 2021 Crime Severity Index (CSI). This is the second year that Statistics Canada has released crime data measures that separate out Victoria and Esquimalt. Victoria remained in the highest spot for municipal police services with a CSI of 148, well above BC’s average of 93. Esquimalt’s CSI remains significantly below BC’s average at 45.

July saw officers respond to multiple calls in which they ended up seizing loaded firearms from residences and from vehicles. On July 15th, Patrol officers responded to a report that a stolen vehicle had been located at a multi-unit residential housing facility in the 700-block of Queens Avenue. Officers arrived, located the vehicle and discovered a loaded shotgun and ammunition inside. The search for the suspect led to a barricaded person call, with the Greater Victoria Emergency Response Team responding and taking two into custody.

Five days later, on July 20th, a traffic stop at Douglas and Discovery streets led to Patrol officers recovering both a realistic replica firearm and a loaded handgun. Two people were arrested, transported to cells and held in custody for breaching a sentencing condition not to possess both real and replica weapons.

The following week, a road rage investigation led officers to recover a loaded shotgun. Officers stopped a vehicle in the 2900-block of Douglas Street as part of a investigation into a road rage incident when they learned the driver of the vehicle had a driving prohibition stemming from a series of previous criminal convictions for a variety of offences, which include firearm offences. In addition to the driving prohibition, the driver also has an indefinite firearms possession ban. Officers performed a security search prior to towing the vehicle and located a loaded shotgun inside. The driver was arrested and later released pending further investigation.

Deuce Days returned to Victoria’s Inner Habour in July for the 90^th anniversary of this classic car event. Tens of thousands of spectators attended the event to take in the over 1,000 pre-1952 vehicles that took to Victoria’s streets.

Officers help keep the crowd safe during Deuce Days

Officers executed a search warrant and seized firearms, body armour and additional weapons after executing a search warrant at a suite in a multi-unit supportive housing facility in the 800-block of Johnson Street. In addition to a shotgun and two handguns, officers located several replica firearms, brass knuckles, a taser, a sword and batons. Two people were arrested.

The family of Jeremy Gordaneer, along with the Vancouver Island Integrated Major Crime Unit (VIIMCU), appealed for information to assist with the investigation into Jeremy’s homicide in August of 2021. CED worked with investigators and Jeremy’s sister, Alisa, and his daughters, Clea and Sylvie, to create a video appealing for those with information to come forward.

Jeremy Gordaneer’s family appeal for answers in his murder

A man was arrested and then apprehended under the Mental Health Act after a report that he threw rocks through the windows of a government building and attempted a carjacking on August 24th. When officers arrived, the man challenged them to a fight and was taken into custody with the assistance of a conducted energy weapon or taser. After taking the man into custody, he made several statements that made officers concerned for his safety and well-being. Officers transported the man to hospital.

Officers had to again deploy a conducted energy weapon to arrest a man who randomly stabbed a stranger in the chest on August 31st. The victim told officers the man approached him and demanded a cigarette. When the victim declined, the man suddenly stabbed the victim in the chest. The victim fled and was pursued by his attacker who only fled the area when a witness yelled that they were calling the police. The suspect brandished the knife and advanced towards responding officers who took him into custody at gunpoint after successfully deploying the conducted energy weapon.

Officers with the Greater Victoria Emergency Response Team had to utilize a noise-making device, pepper spray, and conducted energy weapon and bean bag rounds after hours of negotiation failed to disarm an armed person near a Cook Street Village playground. Upon taking the person into custody, officers learned they had non-life-threatening injuries to their arms. They were treated by a VicPD Tactical Emergency Medical Support (TEMS) medic until BC Emergency Health Services paramedics took over care.

Major Crime Unit investigators began working to identify and locate a suspect after a person was randomly attacked and stabbed multiple times in the 1000-block of Pandora Avenue on Thursday, September 15th. The victim’s injuries were initially potentially life-threatening and it was only after emergency medical care that their injuries were considered non-life-threatening. The victim had been sitting on a bench when they were randomly attacked from behind by a stranger, and only discovered they had been stabbed after fleeing to safety.

While a VicPD Forensic Identification Services (FIS) officer was processing the stabbing scene, he was randomly attacked by a man wielding a skateboard. The attacker swung the skateboard at the FIS officer’s head and was fought off by the officer, who used his camera to deflect the blows and defend himself. Nearby Patrol officers, who were conducting scene security, immediately responded and helped take the suspect into custody. Upon arresting the suspect, officers learned that the man had outstanding warrants and transported to VicPD cells. The FIS officer completed documenting the scene with a different camera.

The next morning officers arrested two people after a man was shot at a multi-unit residential temporary housing facility in the 3000-block of Douglas Street. The victim suffered a non-life-threatening, but potentially life-altering injury to their lower limb. A short time later, officers located two suspects and arrested them at another multi-unit residential temporary housing facility.

Two significant fraud investigations were brought to the public’s attention. On August 27^th Patrol officers were called to a vehicle dealership in the 3000-block of Douglas Street after an employee grew suspicious when a customer applied for over $50,000 in financing using what appeared to be fraudulent means. Officers arrested the man after a short foot chase. The investigation resulted in 85 recommended charges including charges for identity theft, procuring and trafficking government documents, fraud over $5000, obstruction of a police officer and 79 different breaches of various court-ordered conditions.

Community Services Division officers uncovered and then disrupted a series of rental scams throughout downtown Victoria, arresting two suspects. Officers executed a search warrant during the investigation and disrupted a potential fraud in progress. These frauds were marked by being particularly brazen, with the fraudsters meeting with potential victims in short-term vacation rentals that they were listing as long-term rental accommodations online. The fraudsters called victims’ references, had victims sign phony rental contracts and issued false key fobs. These files remain under investigation, with investigators appealing for additional victims to come forward.

Do you recognize this rental fraud suspect?

VicPD volunteers and VicPD Traffic officers helped keep returning Esquimalt and Victoria students safe by conducting a back to school Speed Watch blitz.

VicPD Speed Watch investigators at South Park Elementary School

VicPD Speed Watch volunteers conducted speed watch in school zones every school day in September including deploying to high-concern areas in both Victoria and Esquimalt.

VicPD Speed Watch volunteers with Esquimalt Mayor Barbara Desjardins and School District 61 Board Chair Ryan Painter