One Jasperite got an unexpected bit of excitement added to a summer vacation a few weeks ago, when his help was enlisted by the Sechelt, B.C. RCMP to help catch a fleeing drunk driving suspect. 

Jeff Keogan and his family from Jasper, had just returned from a day out on the boat at Secret Cove just outside of Sechelt, on August 14. Jeff and his brother Tim, a resident of Brooks, were packing up the boat at about 7 p.m. when they were approached by an RCMP member who asked if they had spotted a suspect they were pursuing. Neither Tim nor Jeff recognized the description, and the officer left to continue his search. A few minutes later a different RCMP officer approached, and asked them the same question. 

“They had been chasing this guy for up to an hour,” Jeff said. 

Jeff and Tim then offered to help search the marina, which was clustered in amongst a group of other marinas in the cove. 

“At this time we had no idea he was in the area,” Jeff said. 

Tim then invited the officer aboard the boat, and as Jeff was about to untie and push the officer and Tim out into the cove, they heard a splash. 

“While we were making that offer, we heard a splash as if someone had entered the water,” Jeff said. He pushed his brother and the RCMP member’s boat out into the water, and then assisted other officers in their search of boathouses on land. 

“We didn’t exactly know where he was,” Jeff said. 

Then one of the officers noticed something peculiar – a disturbance in the water that Jeff had brushed off as normal wake from passing boats. 

“He noticed some ripples out from under a boathouse,” Jeff said. “Now we knew they had him.”

Sure enough, the suspect was located underneath a boathouse, but he refused to budge from that spot. The RCMP officers were forced to get into the water at this point. 

“They basically stripped down to their underwear and went into the water,” Jeff said. The officers took off their heavy gun belts, and borrowed life jackets from Jeff and Tim. Led by Sechelt RCMP Cst. Adrian DeJong, the members circled the suspect who continued to resist arrest. 

Jeff said he doesn’t know how long the suspect had been waiting underneath the boathouse, but believes the officer’s detection of the ripples was the only thing that gave away his position. 

“It was getting dark out. If he’d been able to stay hidden till dark I don’t suspect they would have caught him,” he said. 

The suspect then made a bid for freedom, starting off across the channel to a dock. Jeff then used the boat to ferry officers across the channel, where they met the suspect and apprehended him as he attempted to climb up the dock. A clothed officer was waiting with handcuffs to take the suspect away. 

Helping out the RCMP was the furthest thing from Jeff’s mind as he went about his vacation, but it added an unexpected surprise. 

“We couldn’t quite believe it was happening,” he said. “I’m just glad that we were able to offer assistance.”

Jeff said the temperature of the water wasn’t that cold, but as darkness fell it was beginning to get colder for the suspect. 

“He’d been in the water close to an hour,” he said, adding that the suspect was wearing only shorts and had removed his shoes and socks.

Jeff doesn’t believe he was in danger at any point, even though the RCMP members did not specifically say the suspect was not armed. 

“I’m sure if he had been armed or might have been armed they wouldn’t have accepted assistance,” Jeff said. 

The incident all began after RCMP received complaints of an impaired driver leaving a nearby boat launch. Several different people called in to report an aggressive driver had left in a large pick-up truck towing a boat. The RCMP set out to the area just outside of Sechelt, where they located him driving south on Highway 101. 

The suspect was recognized as a 26-year-old Sechelt man prohibited from operating a motor vehicle and from drinking. When the RCMP attempted to stop the suspect by switching on his lights, the driver did not stop. Officers pursued, calling in support as the man continued to drive recklessly. A female passenger of the vehicle was seen taking photos on a cell phone camera. After 10 minutes the officers decided to stop the pursuit due to the risk to the public. 

Witnesses spotted the man running into the woods near the boathouse where Jeff and Tim were unloading their boat. 

The suspect is now in police custody facing charges of causing a police pursuit, breach of recognizance, resisting arrest and prohibited driving. The name of the suspect has not been released.