Watch above: police are reviewing protocol after a patrol car was stolen on Friday
SASKATOON – Accused of stealing a police cruiser, 20-year-old Shayne Penner is facing a total of 14 charges and appeared in Saskatoon provincial court Monday morning.
Saskatoon police Chief Clive Weighill says he’s relieved no one was seriously injured and stands behind his officers and the actions they took.
It was a whirlwind chain of events on Friday night that started with screams next door for one resident living on Powe Street.
“I came out to check it out and found the neighbour lady holding her door shut to a guy with a knife,” said Brennan O’Hara.
O’Hara attempted to help his neighbour while waiting for police to arrive.
“It was pretty intense, there was a guy with a four inch knife standing inside her door and then he came running after me. ”
According to the Weighill, the officers tried to get the suspect to put his knife down and when he refused one of the officers tried to Taser him but the weapon failed.
“Just as they were talking to the individual and they were kinda walking around the car, he happened to be by the driver side door of the car and he jumped in the police car and drove it off which then lead us into a small chase which resulted in an accident up on college,” said Weighill.
One of the officers was injured while attempting to reach inside the vehicle and run along side it. The officer has been released from hospital.
“You can train as much as you want but sometimes you just cannot control the situation when you’re dealing with irrational people,” said Weighill.
The Saskatoon Police Service will be reviewing it’s policy following this incident in regards to officers leaving their vehicles running but the chief says it’s standard procedure.
“It’s happened several times, you get to an incident, you’ve got to get back in the car in a split second and leave so that has been our main protocol but we’ll be reviewing the whole incident.”
The chief says the taser will be checked over, adding this is the second time one has been deployed.
The accused will be back in provincial court on Tuesday.
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