A 28-year-old man is facing more than a dozen charges in connection with a series of alleged kidnappings across the Lower Mainland last month.<\/p>\n
The investigation was launched after a woman was rescued from a vehicle in Pitt Meadows.<\/p>\n
The Ridge Meadows RCMP says it received a report at 12:40 a.m. on Jan. 18 that a woman was allegedly being held against her will in a suspect\u2019s car by a man believed to be armed and making threats.<\/p>\n
Officers were able to locate the vehicle, safely remove the woman, and take the suspect into custody.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got her to safety. She did not require medical attention from the scene,\u201d Staff Sgt. Michelle Luca told 1130 NewsRadio.<\/p>\n
Luca says the arrest quickly turned into a multi-jurisdictional investigation, with investigators uncovering two similar reported cases in Surrey and West Vancouver in the days prior.<\/p>\n
The Surrey Police Service and West Vancouver Police Department then each submitted recommendations to the BC Prosecution Service, which approved 14 charges against Amritpal Singh.<\/p>\n
The charges include three counts of kidnapping, sexual assault with a weapon, assault with a weapon, assault, two counts of uttering threats, two counts of using an imitation firearm in the commission of an offence, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, and several counts of mischief involving computer, text, and telephone data.<\/p>\n
Police say all of the victims were women.<\/p>\n
Investigators believe the suspect targeted victims through an online platform, allegedly using employment opportunities to arrange meetings.<\/p>\n
Luca is reminding the public to be cautious when interacting with strangers online, whether it be \u201ctrying to secure employment or even buying items from someone they don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMake sure you\u2019re doing your research. \u2018Where am I meeting this person? Does it make sense?\u2019 Follow your instincts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Singh has remained in custody since his arrest and is awaiting his next court appearance.<\/p>\n
RCMP say the investigation is ongoing and are asking anyone with information \u2014 or who may have had similar interactions \u2014 to contact their local police.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 28-year-old man is facing more than a dozen charges in connection with a series of alleged kidnappings…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-502793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}