A woman was arrested Wednesday after she got onto a yacht in the Inner Harbour, barricaded herself on the boat, then jumped into the water.
Victoria police said they received a report just before 11 a.m. that a woman was trespassing on a vessel off the 1200-block of Wharf Street.
“When officers arrived and attempted to speak with the female, she barricaded herself high up on the boat,” police said in a statement.
Crisis negotiators with the Emergency Response Team tried to communicate with the woman to get her to surrender peacefully.
The woman eventually jumped in the water and was rescued by officers with assistance from marine search-and-rescue members, police said.
A witness told CHEK News the woman was popping in and out of sight on the yacht before eventually jumping into the water.
Laura Podgorenko told CHEK that emergency crews tried to throw the woman a life ring but she refused to take it.
“She was yelling and screaming and stuff like that,” she said.
Eventually, emergency crews managed to surround the woman and pull her out of the water, she said.
Although the woman was initially taken into custody under the Mental Health Act, she was medically cleared at the scene by B.C. Emergency Health Services and subsequently arrested for mischief, police said.
She was then taken to police cells.
