Impaired driver hits civilian, RCMP officer in Yellowknife

A 20-year old man was arrested in Yellowknife in the early hours of Saturday morning, after police say he hit a security guard and collided with an RCMP vehicle while driving intoxicated, injuring two people.

The man, whose name was not included in the news release, was arrested shortly after 3:00 a.m. on Saturday morning.

Police say he is facing several charges including "dangerous operation of a motor vehicle", and "assault on a police officer with a weapon".

According to a news release from the Yellowknife RCMP, police started investigating the man when they got a call saying that a local security guard "had been hit by vehicle while trying to prevent an impaired driver from leaving a downtown location on Franklin Avenue."

Police said they then got a second call that the same car was "driving at a high rate of speed in the wrong lane of traffic," in Yellowknife's downtown. 

According the news release, when police located the driver and initiated a traffic stop, the driver "accelerated and collided head-on" with another police vehicle that was arriving to help.

"The police vehicle that was arriving in the area was not attempting to block the fleeing vehicle and the collision is being investigated as an intentional act," the release said. 

According to police, both the security guard and the officer who were hit were sent to Stanton Territorial Hospital and treated for injuries, but have since been released. The driver of the vehicle, police said, was declared uninjured by EMS. 

Police say the the investigation is ongoing.