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A group of Kamloops hunters found themselves on the wrong end of a rifle as they were chased out of their campsite and back to the city last month.

They were just north of the city in the Jamieson Creek area, where a man who called himself "the mountain man" forced them out and prompted a heavy police response that saw him arrested the next day.

"We've gone up there 25 years, that's where we go fishing, hunting, hiking," said one of the hunters, Aaron, who was shocked to be confronted by someone claiming to have lived discreetly in the mountains for 18 years.

He and his son Ryan spoke to iNFOnews.ca last week. They were among six hunters there that weekend who evaded the man who appeared to want them out of the area.

Aaron's tradition of going to that area with his family is broken now because he's wary of the so-called mountain man who he said is "unstable." 

"Oh, I'm never going back there," he said.

Police described the confrontation and the arrest briefly last week, noting it was one of three calls for regional Emergency Response Team in a 24-hour span.

The hunters were initially reluctant to speak about their experience with the mountain man, but reached out to iNFOnews.ca after he was released on bail and they had another encounter with him on the same forest service road in the Jamieson Creek area. Aaron said the man is unpredictable and he wants to alert the public.

Out of concern for their own safety, Aaron and Ryan spoke on the condition their last names not be published.

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It all started on Sept. 30, the day before hunting season began, when the stranger approached their camp, which was in a clearing more than 10 kilometres up the forest service road from Westsyde Road. The sun was going down and a beat up white Chevrolet Silverado drove up as the hunters were making their dinner.

They welcomed the stranger to sit with them around the fire. Ryan noticed the man was not only carrying a beer, but he had multiple empty beer cans in the truck. The hunters said he seemed unpredictable and asked probing questions, inquiring about their names, addresses and workplaces.

Ryan said the man told them his name was Mike, but that people called him "the mountain man" and he had lived in a nearby cabin since 2006. They were surprised to hear the man say he had been living in an area they frequented for years and never knew.

"Whenever we would ask some questions, he would go back to 'I'm the mountain man,'" Ryan said.

As the sun continued to go down, the hunters realized the man wasn't going to leave on his own so they insisted they were going to eat then pack it in for the night, planning to get out hunting early in the morning. He was resistant and got angry with their attempts to get him to leave.

The man pulled away in his truck, heading up the Jamieson Creek road. The hunters assumed it was toward the cabin. It was about 6 p.m. and, concerned about whether he might return, they ate and started taking camp down. 

He did come back.

"Half blocking the exit in his truck, he was just watching us," Ryan said.

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One of the hunters, Ryan's uncle, drove his van to where the mountain man had his truck parked, partially blocking the exit to the forest service road. The other five couldn't hear what happened, but a brief conversation ended with the uncle driving down the road chased by the mountain man in his truck.

One of the hunters used the iPhone SOS function to contact police, while Ryan and another hunter drove after the two vehicles now speeding toward Westsyde Road.

They eventually came upon the stranger's white truck partially blocking the road. From the driver's side window they saw the barrel of a rifle and the man bring the stock to his shoulder.

They kept driving.

Once they got into cell phone range, which is nearly at Westsyde Road, they called 911. Ryan said he later learned his uncle had driven away when the mountain man raised his rifle.

By then, half of the group was at the base of the forest road, soon met by multiple police officers, while the other half were still at the camp. The sun was going down and no one knew exactly where the mountain man had gone. Although there were several police officers at the Westsyde Road intersection, only two were from the Emergency Response Team and they decided not to rush in to find him.

"I understood when it was just the two constables, but when you have two ERT guys... and three other constables," Ryan said. "I was like, well you have someone that's dangerous, chasing them down and brandishing a firearm. I didn't start arguing with them, but me and my brother were trying to see if we could drive them back up and show them where it was."

His father was one of the three still taking their camp down.

"It wasn't a great feeling sitting there knowing (police) are just sitting at the base, not going back up, and they know there's an active, possible firearm situation. There's no cell service and you can't get a hold of the people that were up there," Ryan said.

He and Aaron suggested the situation might have been dangerous for officers who would have been searching for a single rifle-wielding man in a darkening forest. 

While the others said they were chased and had a rifle pointed at them, the others, including Aaron, packed up the camp as quickly as they could. They weren't aware of anything that had happened before beyond seeing three vehicles head down the road. It took them 45 minutes and, once they started off to join the rest, they found the mountain man again partially blocking the road.

"It was just dark and as I came up, I could see his truck, but I didn't see him at first," said Aaron, who saw the man, and his rifle, more clearly as he got closer.

"He had the gun resting on his window, and as soon as I came up, he shouldered the weapon and pointed it at me — point-blank range."

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He didn't chase them again.

Aaron acknowledged the group was armed, but he said they had no intentions of escalating the situation. He said they wanted to safely exit as quickly as possible and leave the matter for police.

Once all at the bottom, police urged them to go to Aaron's home, where officers later arrived to take statements. The fully-equipped Emergency Response Team from Kelowna arrived around midnight, but they weren't able to track down the mountain man.

The following morning, Aaron and another hunter decided to venture back up Jamieson Creek Road, determined to continue their opening week hunting trip. He said they assumed the man must have been arrested because police didn't have the road blocked. After several hours in the area, they came upon multiple police officers on their way down, who urged them to leave the area because of the suspect at-large. At the bottom they found dozens of heavily-armed officers, while a helicopter was overhead seeking the mountain man.

Around 5:30 p.m., Oct. 1, the man was arrested at "a camp" in the area, according to Tk'emlups Rural RCMP. It's not clear whether it was at his cabin, and an RCMP spokesperson wouldn't confirm whether any firearms were seized or if the suspect's cabin was searched.

On Oct. 2, Aaron said they went to the Kamloops police station to identify the suspect in the morning ahead of an afternoon bail hearing. Aaron said they were "thinking it was safe," so they went a third time Friday morning to resume their hunting trip.

"They didn't give us any phone call that he had been granted bail (Oct. 2) or had any conditions, and we went out moose hunting," Ryan said. "At 10 kilometres, we came around a corner and we see his truck right in the middle of the road."

They manoeuvred around quickly and without incident, but didn't feel safe to be in the area anymore and they're unlikely to return now. They contacted the rural detachment once they had cell service again to ask what happened and why they weren't told.

"We freaked out when we saw him in the middle of the road," Aaron said. "Police said they should have had someone down there the day before, blocking the road or at least warning the public. And then 'yes, we should have let you know that he's been released on bail.'"

Aaron said the lead investigator told them police had reason to believe he may be "unstable," but the officer in charge of the rural detachment, who Aaron spoke with, said police had no information or concerns about the man's mental health.

Court records show 60-year-old Michael Thomas Petersen, charged with possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose, was released Oct. 2 with several conditions. The court ordered he check in with a bail supervisor, not possess any weapons and not have any contact with or be within 100 metres of any of the six hunters.

An RCMP spokesperson said it's common for police to inform victims when an accused is released.

"The Kamloops and Tk’emlúps RCMP detachments do their best to inform victims if an accused is released on bail as soon as practicable. In some cases, factors may arise that impact the timing, such as when an accused is released, the location of the victims, etc," spokesperson Cpl. Crystal Evelyn said in an emailed statement, adding that police were still actively working in the area when Petersen was released on bail.

She didn't comment on whether or not police should have had an officer at the Jamieson Creek road while the man was still at large. She also didn't comment directly on the decision to not pursue the suspect while half the hunters were still at their camp or heading down, and the suspect's location wasn't known, but did say each investigation is unique police responses are "often dynamic and evolving."

All six hunters got phone calls from RCMP officers notifying them of Petersen's bail on Oct. 4, after Aaron contacted the rural detachment.

iNFOnews.ca also reached out to the BC Prosecution Service about their policy around informing victims of court outcomes. Spokesperson Damienne Darby said victims can request the Crown notify them of major updates in the court process, including whether the accused has been released. Crown are also advised to "take reasonable steps" to notify victims when an accused is released if there are victim safety concerns. She said the latter often occurs in family violence cases, for example.

Petersen, who has no prior criminal convictions, will appear in court again later this month.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Levi Landry or call 250-819-3723 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

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