A man in his 20s is facing multiple charges in connection to a break-in over the weekend in North Vancouver, Mounties say.
North Vancouver RCMP say the man brandished a weapon when confronted by a security guard, who was patrolling a vacant building in the 100 block of West 15th Street, just before 6 a.m. on Saturday.
In a statement released Monday, Mounties detailed the suspect’s attempt to evade police after responding officers arrived to the scene.
After reaching the roof of the building, the man allegedly “traversed between the rooftops of adjacent buildings.”
Due to the dangerous heights, police say officers chose to track the man from a safe distance, rather than follow the path of his attempted escape.
Eventually, the man stopped fleeing and stayed on the roof of the building he’d originally broken into, according to RCMP, at which point police contacted the Integrated Emergency Response Team for assistance.
“IERT are specially trained officers who can assist frontline officers responding to high-risk incidents,” Const. Mansoor Sahak, spokesperson for North Vancouver RCMP, said in the release.
Three hours after the reported break-in, the suspect was arrested.
Mounties say the North Vancouver resident now faces multiple charges, including for weapons possession.
Sahak tells CTV News that the weapon in question was a knife.
He says the suspect is not being identified pending charges, and the man has been released with conditions pending his court date.
Police are unclear about the motive behind the break-in.
“He was already inside the building when the security guard came across him, so the reasons are unknown as to what he was doing inside the vacant building,” said Sahak.
