Surrey man charged in RCH incident arrested for Vancouver standoff
An armed Surrey man who was arrested after a 10-hour stand-off at a Vancouver hotel Monday (Oct. 15) is now facing a series of weapons charges to go along with four charges against him for allegedly crashing into the front entrance of Royal Columbian Hospital on Sept. 9.
Ranjit Singh Sandhu has been charged with unauthorized possession of a firearm, possession of a weapon dangers to the public and two counts of possession of a prohibited weapon. Those are in addition to four charges for the incident in New Westminster.
According to Vancouver Police, the 28-year-old "distraught" man was arrested at the Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel at about 12:15 p.m. Monday and taken to hospital with minor injuries.
He entered the hotel at approximately 2:30 a.m. and as he walked past the front desk, staff noticed he was carrying a handgun. He then walked to an unoccupied, common area of the hotel where he remained by himself. He had no hostages and did not say what he wanted.
A portion of the hotel was locked down with guests asked to remain in their rooms, and part of the street near the hotel at 1038 Canada Place was closed to vehicles and pedestrians for several hours.
At 1:35 a.m. on Sept. 9 a vehicle was seen driving erratically on East Columbia Street before turning into the hospital parking lot and crashing through the front emergency entrance doors. Two pedestrians suffered minor injuries in the incident.
Sandhu was subsequently charged with impaired driving, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, mischief over $5,000 and mischief causing danger to life and willful damage of property.
Following Monday's incident, Vancouver police said Sandhu has a history of mental illness.
– Black Press
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