Mountie had 'control' while running stolen truck off Westsyde Road, jury told

The staff sergeant in charge at the Kamloops RCMP detachment on the night of a 2018 high-speed police chase that has a constable on trial for dangerous driving praised the Mountie's conduct Monday and lauded him for running a stolen truck off Westsyde Road.

RCMP Const. Christopher Squire is standing trial in B.C. Supreme Court. His trial got underway last week and, after an unexpected three-day delay, resumed on Monday.

Court has heard Squire, 33, was one of a handful of officers involved in the pursuit of a stolen Ford pickup truck in the early-morning hours of Dec. 8, 2018. The chase, which reached speeds of 140 km/h, ended when Squire intentionally ran the truck off the road.

Staff Sgt. Brandon Buliziuk was the watch commander on the night of the pursuit — meaning he was directing the actions of on-duty officers from a desk at the Kamloops RCMP detachment. He began testifying last week and returned to the witness stand on Monday morning.

Buliziuk told jurors he called the chase off for public safety. He said RCMP policy identifies theft of a motor vehicle and possession of stolen property as “non-pursuable” offences.

On a video shown to jurors, Squire and another Mountie, Const. Lane Tobin, appear to be continuing to pursue the truck even after Buliziuk’s clear command to stop. Prosecutors have accused Squire of failing to follow Buliziuk’s orders.

During his testimony on Monday, Buliziuk said the RCMP’s policy on pursuits means that Mounties have to use different tactics.

“We work with policies that can oftentimes make it very difficult to apprehend suspects, especially vehicle thieves. In a case like this, we want to use every avenue we can without putting the public or our peers at risk,” he said.

“In this case, do you want to pursue an obvious pursuit — lights and sirens, your L.A. freeway-style pursuit? No, we don’t want to do that at all. But we do want to strategically and tactically place our resources in places where they may be stationary.”

Buliziuk acknowledged that he felt Squire and Tobin were driving “aggressively” even after his order to call off the chase. That’s what he told an investigator from B.C.’s Independent Investigations Officer in an interview on Jan. 23, 2019 — six weeks after the incident.

“I speak in the statement [to the IIO] about the information that I’ve received over the radio, and it sounds like they are being a little more aggressive than I would like,” he said.

“If I recall from this interview, I think where I was going with that was more so the description of the fish-tailing [by the suspect] that was taking place, and that was telling me that possibly the subjects knew they were still being followed by the police.”

Despite that, Buliziuk said he was under the impression that the pursuit had not been re-engaged.

Under cross-examination from defence lawyer Brad Smith, Buliziuk praised Squire’s actions in running the truck off the road. Squire used a police tactic known as a PIT maneuver — an acronym standing for precision immobilization technique.

Buliziuk said Mounties are not officially trained on the maneuver but agreed that Squire’s execution of it was “textbook.”

“Can we agree that the manner of Const. Squire’s driving, albeit dramatic at that point, exhibited a substantial degree of control?” Smith asked.

“A Ford Taurus successfully carrying out a precision immobilization technique that we don’t even get training on how to do that properly? And the fact that he could carry that out with that small vehicle against an F-250 quickly, effectively and to a controlled stop? I would say that speaks to control,” Buliziuk replied.

Crown prosecutor Andrew McLean stood at that point to remind jurors that the PIT maneuver — Squire’s actions in running the truck off the road — does not form part of the dangerous driving allegations.

Last week, Tobin testified that he was praised by a high-ranking superior for his actions in the pursuit the following day. He said he and Squire were then the subject of an internal RCMP probe.

Squire’s trial was expected to conclude this week, but that was before last week’s lengthy delay.