Const. Brian Burkett sustained minor injuries while attempting to place a suspect under arrest on May 9.
Ahousaht RCMP had been dispatched to a residence around 5:05 p.m. after a report came in alleging a man had wandered into a private residence uninvited and was aggressively punching a bed inside.
Burkett was the first officer on scene and he found the uninvited man still inside the residence.
Burkett attempted to arrest the man for break and enter but the man resisted and tried to put Burkett in a headlock, according to Sgt. James Anderson of the Tofino RCMP.
Anderson said the two men wrestled and Burkett wound up on his back being choked by the suspect.
"After a few seconds of choking, the officer was able to push the suspect away just in time as a backup officer arrived," Anderson said. "The suspect continued to resist and had to be pepper sprayed."
Anderson said the man was eventually handcuffed and taken to the police detachment.
The man faces charges of break and enter and assaulting a peace officer.
Sleeping man crashes vehicle A family of tourists is lucky to be alive after being involved in a significant single vehicle collision near the Tofino Visitor Centre on May 6. Police were alerted to the collision around 2:45 p.m. and arrived at the scene to find a heavily damaged rental SUV well off the side of the road, according to Sgt. Anderson.
The vehicle's driver told police he had fallen asleep at the wheel.
The driver's wife and daughter were in the vehicle at the time of the accident.
The vehicle's airbags deployed on impact and all three family members were taken to the Tofino hospital with whiplash type injuries, according to Anderson.
"Good thing for using a child restraint chair, seatbelts and the deployment of sideairbags or the injuries to all could have been much worse," he said.
Local cop recognized with Alexa's Team award A Tofino police officer was recently recognized for his work removing impaired drivers from the road.
Const. Mike Moore of the Tofino RCMP attended a special ceremony in Victoria last week where he was honoured with an Alexa's Team certificate of achievement.
The award is named in memory of Alexa Middelaer who was struck and killed by a drunk driver in 2008 when she was just four years old.
Police are recognized for the award through collaboration between Alexa's parents Laurel and Michael Middelaer and the Justice Institute of British Columbia.
Moore has now received the award three times.
"We are really appreciative of Mike's talents for targeting impaired drivers on the West Coast," Sgt. Anderson said. "One impaired driver on our roadway is one too many."
reporter@westerlynews.ca