One man has been hospitalized with serious injuries after a bizarre incident involving a bobcat in Duncan Tuesday night.
Video footage captured from the scene shows at least five RCMP police cruisers chasing the allegedly stolen skid steer loader as it drove recklessly down Somenos Road.
According to BCRCMP, on March 28th, at about 9:15 p.m. North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP received a report of a man who appeared impaired driving a track loader skid-steer down a residential street.
Officers attended and attempted to get the driver to stop, but there were collisions between the loader and police vehicles.
Witnesses say police chased the bobcat down several streets including, Glacier Street, Hawkes Bouvelard and Evans Park areas before hearing at least six gunshots.
During the chase, police say one officer discharged their weapon striking the driver. Paramedics were called and the man was transported to hospital with serious injuries.
According to online reports, the person driving the bobcat was 31-year-old Davin Cochrane of Ladysmith.
The Independent Investigations Office of BC (IIO) confirmed it is investigating the incident to determine the interactions between the man and police.
An unconfirmed Facebook post says Cochrane suffered two gunshot wounds to the head and is at Victoria General Hospital on life support.
Cochrane’s fiancé, Sarah Annie Brown, posted to a Duncan-based Facebook group Wednesday morning stating it was her partner involved.
“This was my fiance and our newborn daughter’s dad…he was shot at twice in the head and it didn’t need to go that way,” Brown wrote in her post.
The IIO is asking any person with relevant information or dashcam or other video footage of the incident to please contact their witness line at 1-855-446-8477.
