A woman police named as number five on the list of B.C.'s 10 most prolific car thieves was shot by police Friday at a shopping mall in Chilliwack, B.C.
Police say Cassandra Lee Rowell, 28, was shot "more than once" after being cornered by officers in an allegedly stolen SUV at the Vedder Shopping Mall.
The incident began in the parking lot outside a Shoppers Drug Mart at around 12:30 p.m., RCMP spokesman Cpl. Peter Thiessen said.
Witnesses said undercover RCMP officers boxed in a tan-coloured SUV and tried to arrest Rowell. Shots were fired by officers, shattering a window, when the vehicle attempted to flee by ramming two police cars.
Thiessen said three shots had been fired by police but would not say if those inside the SUV, a man and woman whom he identified as Rowell, were armed.
He added that Rowell had been under surveillance by police before the incident.
"There was a chase going on with about four different police vehicles, unmarked ones chasing another vehicle," witness Melody Thompson said.
The SUV initially escaped but the chase ended at nearby Cumberland Avenue and Janis Street in Chilliwack. It was pursued by a police helicopter and pulled over.
Another witness, Claude Beaucage, said the man got out of the vehicle on Cumberland Avenue and gave himself up to police of his own accord.
"The kid was on the ground, he said 'my girlfriend's in the truck, she's hurt. Don't hurt me. My girlfriend's in the truck....' This is what he said," Beaucage told CTV News.
Rowell was taken to hospital. Her condition is not known.
Two local schools, G.W. Graham and Vedder Elementary School, were locked down during the police chase, but have since reopened.
The 10 Most Wanted List of property-theft criminals, put out in April 2009 for B.C. Auto Crime Enforcement Month, said Rowell was wanted on warrants for possession of stolen property, fraud, and had been known to flee police. It also said she had attempted to run over police in the past.
With a report by CTV British Columbia's Michele Brunoro.
