Image Credit: CFJC Today

By James Peters

Merritt suspect search

Merritt manhunt resulted from ‘joke gone wrong’: RCMP

Aug 23, 2019 | 11:34 AM

MERRITT, B.C. — RCMP in Merritt say a manhunt yesterday appears to have resulted from a “joke gone wrong.”

According to Cpl. Brock Hedrick, the incident began as a woman and her granddaughter were floating down the Nicola River in the Lower Nicola area.

“All of the sudden, a male came out of an island on the river brandishing a machete and told them, basically, they needed to leave the area — they weren’t welcome in the area,” said Hedrick. “[That] seemed strange to these folks because they actually own the property that they were floating by.”

The woman reported the incident and Merritt RCMP called in extra resources to help track down the suspect. Hedrick says the search was called off at about 10:30 p.m., but it wouldn’t take long for investigators to put the pieces together.

“Just shortly after that, we received information that a male had identified himself to us, taking ownership of this. We’re still following up on it, but it appears to be a teenage prank gone wrong,” said Hedrick.

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RCMP resources were marshalled from all over the southern Interior, meaning the response likely cost thousands of dollars.

“We brought in an aircraft from Kelowna. There were members who responded from Kelowna, Salmon Arm, Kamloops with the ERT response, and the dog came out of Kamloops as well,” said Hedrick. “So a lot of resources tied up there for multiple hours for something that, right now, looks like a joke gone wrong.”

Investigators are still putting together their report, and Hedrick says though the threat wasn’t serious, the incident could still result in charges against the teenage boy responsible.

“We’ll finish up our investigation and then we’ll take a look at it and determine if charges are warranted. If they are, we’ll be proceeding to send that to the BC Prosecution Service for charge approval.”