RCMP drone finds armed robbery suspect on Poundmaker Cree Nation

Mounties from the Cut Knife RCMP detachment used an aerial drone to track down a robbery suspect earlier this month.

According to the RCMP, officers got a report of an armed robbery on the Poundmaker Cree Nation on Friday.

“Investigation determined two individuals approached four victims,” the Mounties explained in a statement.

READ MORE:

• Strained RCMP resources mean a ‘delicate balance’ on protecting MPs
• RCMP looking for man charged after weapons found in Buffalo Narrows
• Human remains found near Moose Jaw in April identified: RCMP

“One adult female was assaulted. An adult male was threatened with a firearm, which was discharged into the air, and was forced to drive the suspects to a residence on Poundmaker Cree Nation.”

After allegedly forcing the victim to drive them to a home, the RCMP said the suspects then got into an altercation with another man, and demanded the keys to a truck that was parked in the driveway.

“The keys were not provided to them and the suspects fled the scene on foot,” the RCMP said.

Police said officers used a drone to track down and arrest one of the alleged robbers, a 21-year-old woman, while she was running behind a home on the Cree Nation.

Officers arrested the second suspect, a 27-year-old man from Little Pine First Nation, on Sunday.

Both are now facing charges including robbery with a firearm, assault, uttering threats, and possession of a firearm in a motor vehicle. They were scheduled to appear in court in North Battleford on Monday.

Two types of drones are used by Mounties in Saskatchewan. (Saskatchewan RCMP/Submitted)

The Saskatchewan RCMP started rolling out the unmanned aircraft to each detachment in the province last year.

Two types of drones are used by the Mounties in the province, including a multi-rotor aircraft that can remain in the air for about an hour, and a fixed-wing drone that can operate for up to seven hours at a time.

In addition to their uses during criminal investigations, the drones have also been used in search-and-rescue situations. RCMP drones were used to locate and rescue a group of hikers from Ricer River Canyon earlier this year, and a spokesperson for the Mounties described them as a “game changer.”