SURREY, B.C. — A dramatic video showing police chasing a motorcyclist through a Vancouver-area mall is going viral on YouTube.
The video shot on Feb. 20 cuts between police footage taken by a helicopter and a cruiser, as well as surveillance video from inside Guildford Town Centre in Surrey, B.C.
The motorcyclist can be seen speeding through the streets of Surrey before entering the mall, hurtling down an escalator and through a set of sliding doors, forcing people to dodge out of the way.
Helicopter video shows the motorcyclist leaving the mall and riding across a pedestrian overpass, and the video ends with a close-up of the bike's Hells Angels stickers.
Surrey RCMP put out a news release at the time about a reckless motorcyclist who had reportedly driven through a mall, and they described him as a white male in his 40s.
Mounties say they are looking into how the video was posted on Friday to video-sharing sites LiveLeak and YouTube, where it has been viewed tens of thousands of times.
Sgt. Bill Parmar says the incident began on Feb. 20 at about 1:30 p.m. when RCMP received calls from a nearby detachment about a motorcyclist driving in a reckless manner and heading into Surrey.
He says an officer followed the motorcyclist into the Guildford Town Centre parking lot and chased him on foot when he entered the mall.
As the biker rode southeast toward Langley at a high speed, RCMP decided to call off the chase to avoid further danger to the public, Parmar says.
"The vehicle was driving in such a dangerous manner that the duty officer of the day made a decision to back off the police units," he says, adding that air units were still used.
A motorcycle matching the description was later found abandoned in a wooded area near Langley. The motorcycle had earlier been reported stolen in Nanaimo, B.C., Parmar adds.
RCMP have not found the suspect and the investigation is ongoing.
Parmar adds he has been with the force for 19 years and has never seen anything like this.
"It's very unusual," he says. "Part of the investigation is determining why the person on the motorcycle was driving in the dangerous manner that he was."
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