A man Prince George RCMP describe as a well-known prolific offender is in custody after allegedly turning to drastic measures to evade police early afternoon Tuesday.
Over the course of about 10 minutes, Neil Romeo Joseph Hamel, 40, drove his car through two stop signs, struck a pickup truck, drove across two front lawns, hit some boulders, got stuck in a snowbank and, after freeing himself from that, ran into a cement barrier, RCMP said Wednesday.
Once out of the car, he then got into a struggle with two officers and appeared to be reaching with something in his pocket – two knives were later found – before he was finally brought under control with the help of a police dog and handcuffed.
RCMP said it started at about 1 p.m. when Hamel, driving a red Pontiac Sunfire, took off rather than stop for a member of the detachment's general duty section who had tried to pull him over at the intersection of Upland Street and Ferry Avenue.
He continued east onto Queensway, passing a vehicle on the right side in the process.
At that point, the pursuing officer turned off his emergency lights and siren and pulled over in the name of public safety, but reactivated them when Hamel hit the pickup truck.
Despite the damage to the car, Hamel kept going and turned onto Moyie Street where he crossed the first lawn and hit the boulders. From there, he slowly made his way to Village Avenue and through a stop sign and onto the second front yard where he hit the snowbank.
Able to free the car, Hamel then continued onto Norwood Street, heading north before hitting the barrier at the end of that street's dead end as he sped up.
Along with the knives, methamphetamine, heroin, a significant sum of cash, drug trafficking paraphernalia, ammunition, a loaded pellet gun, break and enter tools and two homemade weapons were seized as part of the investigation.
Hamel was taken to hospital for treatment of minor bite wounds. Neither the pickup's driver nor the arresting officers were hurt.
Hamel remains in custody and seven charges have since been approved, all under the Criminal Code: dangerous driving, failing to stop for police, resisting arrest, possession of ammunition contrary to an order, possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking and two counts of possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose.
Hamel has a long criminal record, made up largely of drug-related offences.
But notably, in August 2012, he was sentenced to a further four months in jail and prohibited from driving for two years for dangerous driving and fleeing police.
That was from an incident in April that year when an RCMP officer who knew Hamel did not have a driver's licence tried to pull him over.
The officer pulled a U-turn and activated his lights and siren just as Hamel, who was heading north on Cowart Road, turned onto Highway 16.
Hamel continued into the city at about 100 km/h and turned east onto Ferry Avenue, the court heard during the sentencing hearing.
The officer used his loud hailer to ask Hamel by name to pull over. But when Hamel kept going and sideswiped another vehicle, almost forcing it off the road, the officer stopped the chase.
Shortly afterward, police located Hamel walking west on Village Avenue towards Lillooet Street where he was arrested. The truck, which was determined to have been stolen, was found abandoned a short distance away.
In passing sentence, provincial court judge Dan Weatherly noted that if not for some smart police work, the incident could have turned out much worse and found Hamel showed a total disregard for other people's safety.
