Alberta man jumps in lake fleeing police, needs to be rescued from drowning

An Innisfail Fire Rescue vehicle is seen in this undated image. (Source: Town of Innisfail)

A man who jumped into an Alberta lake in an attempt to flee from police needed to be rescued by RCMP and fire crews on Thursday night.

RCMP were called to the Dodds Lake area in Innisfail, Alta., where a suspicious man was reportedly going through people’s backyards, according to a Friday news release.

When the man spotted a resident of one of the homes, he immediately jumped into the lake, believing the homeowner to be a police officer.

Officers arrived at the lake and saw the man bobbing up and down in the water and attempted to get his attention to have him swim to shore.

“The male yelled back that he had warrants and he would rather drown than go back to jail,” RCMP said in the news release.

The man had then been in the water for approximately 30 minutes, so RCMP called for help from the Innisfail Fire Rescue and EMS.

Crews drove a rescue boat out into the middle of the lake, but the man refused to get into the boat, due to his “outstanding warrants.”

However, he eventually started complaining about leg cramps and feeling dizzy from ingesting lake water, and conceded to get into the rescue boat, police say.

He was taken to the shore and examined by EMS.

“The male was found to have no outstanding warrants. When advised of this he was angry as he had, ‘done all that for nothing,’” RCMP said.

Police arrested the man after determining he was on a 24-hour, court-ordered curfew.

The man, 25, from Innisfail, was charged with failing to comply with a release order. He was released from custody and is scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 11.

Innisfail is located approximately 120 kilometres north of Calgary.