A 27-year-old Saskatoon man is in custody following two vehicle thefts and a police chase that resulted in a collision with a house Monday night.
Around 8 p.m. Saskatoon police were alerted that a Ford Escape SUV had been stolen from a business in the 2600 block of Avenue C North.
Officers tracked the vehicle using GPS and say it was being driven erratically through a number of areas including 33rd Street and Confederation Drive before driving through a park.
Police used spike belts twice to partially disable the SUV, but the driver managed to drive back to the business on Avenue C.
Police say the suspect abandoned the SUV and stole a GMC Cube Van.
They used another spike belt on the van, which then crashed into three police vehicles and finally a house on the 800 block of Avenue S North.
Neighbour Alexis Bennett said the incident happened right outside her home and was upsetting for her and her small children.
“I heard this rumble and I was like what is that noise,” Bennett said Tuesday. “All of a sudden we saw like six cop cars just flying down 29th Street.”
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She said the sound of spike belts popping the van’s tires sounded like gunshots.
“We closed the blinds, shut the lights off and ran to the opposite side of the house and we all just sat on the floor,” Bennett said.
When her husband finally looked out the window, he saw that the van had crashed into their neighbour’s house.
While no one was seriously injured, she wants to know how police let the chase get to this point.
“My question is why did it take so long to stop this guy if they had been tracking him with GPS the entire time,” Bennett said. “There’s lots of us in the area including my neighbours who want to know why…. Why did it have to get to this point where it was in a residential area where people could have been injured if not killed?”
During the man’s subsequent arrest, police found a knife in his possession.
He is now facing charges of possession of stolen property, assault of four police officers, dangerous driving, theft and breach of court conditions.
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