A man appears to be in custody after a long pursuit of legs in Penticton on Friday night, with a witness locating the police occupation. Bill Shannon was waiting for his daughter outside Safeway to finish his shopping when he spotted a man holding an ax with an ax. “I thought, well, maybe he’s a camper, I really thought that at first,” he said. “A lady came out of the door at the end, and this guy turned to her and started walking right at her. Then I saw him tighten the ax as if shaking.” Shannon said he saw the man continue to follow the woman through the parking lot, heading towards the main road. “I see him hiding the ax in the back of his pants and then covering it with his hood. I say, ‘Okay, he’s hiding it, something is happening.’ So I called 911.” Shannon called police shortly before 9pm and alerted the pilot of where the man appeared to be heading. Soon, Shannon saw police cars flying over the area. “I go up to the street where I see these police cars parked now and I thought, ‘can I go check it and see if they need a witness or anything else’ and we pulled over and it was intense.” said Shannon. As police approached the suspect, Shannon said he saw the man running into the yards of nearby residents, jumping fences as police chased him. Police arrested the suspect outside a nearby kindergarten, where Shannon said he saw the shooting unfold. His daughter captured the action on camera. There was a moment of relief for Shannon now that the police had managed to arrest the man. “I’m glad they took him,” he said. “It was night and this guy is crazy like the one who walks around with an ax in his hand.” Castanet has contacted the RCMP for more information.
