Vegreville RCMP say they’ve arrested a high risk driver.
Between Sunday, September 6 and Tuesday, September 8, the police say they attempted three times to pull over a blue Isuzu pickup truck which was known to them as a salvage vehicle unsafe to drive. The driver refused to stop, driving at a high rate of speed down city streets.
The RCMP say they found the truck again on Tuesday, and followed it to a rural area, setting up a roadblock. The driver drove through a ditch and a field to get around the roadblock, and continued at a high rate of speed. The RCMP set up another roadblock further down the road, and the driver turned around to head back in the direction he had come. The police tried to block his escape, but he collided with the front end of a police cruiser as he was driving through the ditch to get around officers, and escaped. Luckily, the officer was not injured.
On Wednesday, September 9, the RCMP found the suspect near his home in Mundare, and he fled on foot, and officers gave chase. He broke into the home of a woman who was home alone at the time, then broke through her garage door as he tried to escape the police. Officers caught up to him a short distance later, when he approached them in a threatening manner. The RCMP say they used pepper spray to subdue him.
37-year-old Istvan Bartok of Mundare faces 27 charges stemming from the incidents. The RCMP say he is well known to them and Peace Officers in the area due to past run-ins. He makes his first appearance in court Monday, September 14.