Quebec’s police watchdog, the Bureau des inquêtes indépendentes (BEI), is investigating after a 79-year-old woman was killed during a police operation in Montreal Tuesday afternoon.
Preliminary information reported to the BEI suggests the incident began during a police radar operation when a vehicle was reportedly caught speeding.
According to the BEI, an officer is said to have signaled to the driver to stop.
The driver, however, failed to stop prompting the officer to get into his police cruiser in a bid to catch up.
The fleeing motorist then accelerated and lost control of the vehicle, fatally striking the pedestrian.
The woman was rushed to hospital where she was declared dead.
The BEI says the occupants of the vehicle fled the scene on foot.
Montreal police officers noted — after the fact — that the vehicle involved in the collision had been reported stolen.
Six investigators with the BEI have been tasked to look into the incident and verify the accuracy of the above statements.
The BEI investigates whenever a person, other than a police officer on duty, dies or suffers a serious injury during a police intervention or while in police custody.