Man who stole Vancouver police cruiser hit cyclist [Video]

It all happened within a matter of seconds. Christopher Taylor was biking near an East Vancouver park on a leisurely Sunday morning when he looked left to see a police cruiser barrelling toward him.

He tried pushing with as much force as he could muster on his black fixed-gear bike, hoping to get out of the way.

“I knew it was going to be close, and I heard a crunch and was thrown into the street,” Taylor said.

The driver of the vehicle crashed into the back of Taylor’s bike. Taylor said a bystander rushed over to him as he lay on an adjacent lawn in shock.

“(I’m) very grateful for being able to stand here and talk to you today, that’s for sure,” he said.

At the time, Taylor thought he was in the wrong.

“I thought, initially, (that) I got in the way of something very important,” he …