A suspect has been arrested and charges laid in connection to a December incident where a 90-year-old Salmon Arm man was assaulted after giving a stranger a ride.
Sicamous RCMP Sgt. Murray McNeil said 57-year-old Rodney Boyd Gerow, of no fixed address, has been identified by police as the suspect in the incident that was reported to police at 3:30 p.m. on Dec. 1. At that time, police spoke with the victim, a 90-year-old Salmon Arm resident, as well as a witness to the robbery at a Sicamous gas station. The victim had been at a restaurant in Salmon Arm earlier that afternoon when he was approached outside by a man he did not know.
“The man was persistent in asking him for a ride east on the highway,” said McNeil, in a Dec. 4 media release.
The victim eventually agreed to drive the man east and the two departed in the victim’s SUV.
In Sicamous, the victim pulled into a gas station where he told the stranger that was as far as he would be taking him.
McNeil said the passenger then grabbed the keys from the ignition and told the victim to exit the vehicle, “before striking him once in the head and pushing the victim out of his own vehicle.”
The victim was treated at the scene and transported to hospital for minor injuries to his face and hand.
Soon after, police located the vehicle, which had been abandoned in Malakwa.
In a Monday, Jan. 29 media release, McNeil said charges of assault causing bodily harm and robbery were approved against Gerow and an arrest warrant was issued.
Gerow was found and arrested that day by the Calgary Police Service, and was to be transported to B.C. for a court appearance and bail hearing.
“I am very pleased with the work accomplished by investigators to identify the suspect and make an arrest in this robbery,” said McNeil. “The elderly victim felt pressured into helping a person that he thought was in need and this individual rewarded that gesture by assaulting him.
“The act of robbing a senior with violence is an act of cowardice that prompted this investigation to become a priority for the Sicamous detachment.”
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