Pair arrested after separate crashes, assault with a weapon near Victoria

Mounties arrested a man and a woman on Vancouver Island after a pair of motor vehicle crashes and a reported assault on a security guard early Friday morning.

Mounties arrested a man and a woman on Vancouver Island after a pair of motor vehicle crashes and a reported assault on a security guard early Friday morning.

The string of incidents began in the early hours when the Sooke RCMP responded to Beecher Bay, west of Victoria, for a single-vehicle crash.

Officers located an injured woman who they believe was a passenger in the crashed vehicle. Police learned the male driver had fled the scene prior to their arrival, the RCMP said in a news release.

While investigating the crash, officers received a report that a security guard had been attacked by a man who also stole the guard's truck.

Officers patrolled the area along East Sooke Road between Rocky Point and Sutiacum roads and found the stolen truck had crashed down an embankment.

A man who is believed to have crashed the first vehicle before stealing and crashing the truck was arrested for theft of a vehicle and assault with a weapon, the RCMP said.

Meanwhile, officers at the first collision learned that "an explosive device associated to the woman was present" at the scene, the Sooke RCMP said.