In short:
A seven-hour Melbourne police chase ended in Point Cook after a man jumped from a moving van and was struck by police. No serious injuries were reported and charges are expected.
Acting Inspector "We got our bad guy"
A dramatic seven-hour police pursuit across Melbourne has ended in Point Cook with a man being struck by an unmarked police car after jumping from a stolen van.
Police say the chase began about 5.40am after a van was allegedly stolen from St Kilda Road. The vehicle was tracked by the Air Wing and multiple ground units as it travelled erratically through several suburbs including Footscray, Port Melbourne, Spotswood, Carnegie, Sunshine, Dandenong and Point Cook.
Throughout the pursuit, the stolen van collided with both parked and moving vehicles, with parts of the chassis reportedly falling off as the chase continued.
Just after 1.00pm, the man allegedly jumped from the moving vehicle at the intersection of Dunnings Road and Juniper Avenue in Point Cook, bringing the chase to a dramatic end.
He was struck by an unmarked police vehicle as he attempted to flee on foot.
The 36-year-old Point Cook man was arrested at the scene and transported to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. He remains under police guard and is yet to be interviewed.
No serious injuries have been reported at this stage.
Speaking to media after the incident, Acting Inspector Dean Pickering said even seasoned officers were shaken by the events.
“Look, I’ve seen the video and we got our bad guy. That’s a fair thing to say,” Pickering said.
“Looking at what happened, I don’t think anyone would have expected that offender to bail out of the window like he did when he did,” he continued.
“When I watched the video, I was a bit surprised, thinking that someone would do that. (I’m) surprised he actually didn’t get run over by the van he was in and looking at it, it was pretty close.”
Pickering clarified that the collision was not intentional.
“The driver of that police car, I’ve briefly spoken to, he wasn’t anticipating that person was going to come out the window and run like he did. They’ve taken evasive action pretty quickly, and obviously we have seen the collision,” he said.
“But unfortunately in the policing world we see pedestrian collisions all day, every day from people that in this case do crazy things. And in this case, the bad guy wanted to escape. It certainly wasn’t a deliberate course of action as a way to arrest our offender.”
As for what the man will be charged with, Pickering said it’s still being finalised.
“Too early to call it. But weapon charges is probably a fair way to put it,” he said.
“Even looking at the video that I’ve looked at, I lost count with fingers, toes and everything else in terms of how many charges that I could see. It’s gone hours and hours and hours before. There’ll be significant charges.
“He’ll be held to account. He’ll be off the streets. Obviously, his injuries will be looked at. The members will interview him, and it would be our intention to ensure that he’s off the streets for as long as we can keep him off the streets.”
