Police say a man wanted on Canada-wide arrest warrants in connection with a fatal crash was arrested in downtown Vancouver last week. The Vancouver Police Department said it issued a warrant for 55-year-old Raymond Desorcy’s arrest in December, and officers found and took the “chronic offender” into custody outside a coffee shop near Granville Street and West Georgia streets on Thursday morning. “Desorcy pled guilty to dangerous operation of a conveyance causing death in a crash that killed 18-year-old Dana Oh in Vancouver in 2023. He failed to appear for a sentencing hearing in 2025, and a warrant was issued for his arrest,” the VPD explained, in a statement. “Upon his guilty plea being entered, the court heard evidence that Desorcy had been distracted by his cell phone and speeding on Oct. 7, 2023, when he drove through a red light at Granville Street and King Edward Avenue and collided with a BMW sedan turning left.” Police said the impact injured Oh, who was in the backseat of the BMW at the time of the accident. The vehicle’s doors had to be removed to extract her from it, and she died six days later in hospital. The VPD said that Desorcy has a criminal record dating back to 1989, including convictions related to impaired driving, assault, break and enter, robbery and uttering threats, in addition to a lifetime firearms prohibition. “He was found guilty of seven counts of robbery in Edmonton in 2014 and released from prison in 2020,” the VPD added. When he was arrested on Thursday, the VPD said Desorcy was in possession of non-prescription drugs and has since been charged with a breach of release order. Online court records show Desorcy remains in custody and is scheduled to appear in court in Vancouver on Tuesday.
