A man was arrested in Nanaimo on Monday after reports that someone was breaking windows with a machete to get into homes, had assaulted people and had stolen a vehicle.
Witnesses said a man broke into a Duggan Road home using a machete, prompting the homeowner to flee. The man then broke into another home, where residents chased him out.
Police, who said they began receiving calls around 1:45 p.m, said they were told the man ran from there to Davies Road, where he attacked and wounded a man in his driveway before chasing the man and his wife, then demanding the keys to their car and stealing it.
Officers subsequently responded to “a flurry of reports” about the vehicle being driven at high speed on Bowen Road and the Island Highway, before it clipped a concrete median at the Comox Street-Terminal Avenue intersection and flew through the air.
The driver managed to keep going along Terminal Avenue before turning onto Albert Street and losing control, police said.
He crashed the car at the intersection of Albert and Dunsmuir Street and fled.
That was followed by reports from 911 callers that a man in the parking lot at Port Place Mall on Commercial Street was trying to break into vehicles and fighting with people.
A man known to police was arrested at the mall without incident after a brief chase, and appeared in court Tuesday.
Christopher Bartos, 32, has been charged with two counts of breaking and entering, two counts of robbery, aggravated assault and theft of a motor vehicle.
He was scheduled for a bail hearing Tuesday afternoon.
The investigation is ongoing and more charges could be coming, police said.
Nanaimo RCMP are asking to hear from anyone with video footage of events on Duggan Place or in the mall parking lot from 1:30 p.m.-2:15 p.m. Monday.
Call 250-754-2345.
