(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)

KAMLOOPS – After an eight hour search, sources say the third man wanted in connection with a stolen vehicle who fled from police on Friday afternoon is in custody. The arrest hasn not been confirmed by the RCMP at this time.

Around 2:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon, police received reports of an erratic driver in the Aberdeen area. Soon Mounties were tracking a white car traveling toward Logan Lake. The driver of the vehicle then turned back towards Kamloops. Suspecting the car might be stolen, RCMP began pursuing the car.

The car pulled into the old Rona parking lot on Versatile Drive and three men, all believed to be in their twenties, jumped out of the car and started running. Two were nabbed by surrounding police officers. One of the suspects attempted to steal a tractor trailer in the Canadian Tire parking lot but was unsuccessful, RCMP spokesperson Staff Sgt. Grant Learned said.

RCMP considered the third suspect armed because long barrelled guns and a handgun were found in the trunk of the vehicle and in a suspect's backpack.

The canine unit and 13 RCMP members, many of whom Learned said just happened to be in the area when events broke, searched through nearby forested areas around the Rona and Canadian Tire lots and searched parked cars.

Police patrolled each side of the highway in cruisers and on foot in both the Aberdeen and Dufferin areas, while others monitored roads leading out of the city.

"There's a lot of work left to do," Learned said after the suspect escaped.

One reader said she was in the area when one of the suspects was arrested.

"I was leaving Costco this afternoon and drove around the corner when I saw guns drawn and officers handcuffing what I believe was the first suspect just outside the abandoned East Indian restaurant across from Rona. There were police running around the building and police cars ripping up the highway and across to Canadian Tire," the reader said in an email.

"There was a cop to our left running past me and my three-year-old daughter, talking into his radio with his gun drawn. Quite a scary afternoon."

Around 3:15 p.m. officers received tips from members of the public saying the suspect was spotted near Aberdeen Elementary school and nearby Pacific Way Elementary.

Later in the evening, around 8:20 p.m. Mounties followed up on a suspect sighting tip near the Original Joe’s restaurant in Aberdeen. Two officers and the canine unit were unable to discover the suspect.

Sources say the suspect was arrested around 10:00 p.m.

An update will be provided once more information becomes available.

To contact a reporter for this story, email jstahn@infotelnews.ca, call 250-819-3723. To contact the managing editor, email Marshall Jones at mjones@infotelnews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

- This story was updated at 2:48 p.m. to add comments from Staff Sgt. Grant Learned.
- This story was updated at 4:59 p.m. with an update from police and a reader.
- This story was updated at 9:45 a.m. with information about a third arrest

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