A 28 year old man is dead and a police watchdog investigation underway in Gatineau after a police chase on foot that ended in the man's death. It happened around 1:30 this morning on boulevard Montclair just south of the Casino du Lac-Leamy. The incident started at the Casino with a call to police about a man trying to break into cars.
It ended with the man fleeing police and being struck by someone driving by.
The broken windshield and the dented hood tell the story of a tragic collision that led to the death of the 28-year-old man who was struck by a passing motorist after a short police chase in the wee hours of the morning.
But the incident started a few hours earlier inside the Casino du Lac-Leamy. The Casino confirms that police had been called to deal with unruly behavior.
“The victim was at the casino earlier in the evening,” says the Casino’s Catherine Schellenberg, “We asked him to leave and there was an incident following that and the police were called in.”
The call to police was regarding someone trying to break into cars in the Casino's parking lot. When police arrived, they saw someone matching the description given them. The man took off and they pursued on foot.
“During this pursuit, the man that was fleeing was involved in a collision with a car,” says Martin Bonin-Charron, the media representative with the Bureau des Enquêtes Indépendentes or BEI, “and the man was transferred to hospital and he died a few hours later.”
Quebec's police watchdog authority the BEI was called in to investigate the death and the involvement of the Gatineau police. The bureau has 10 investigators on the scene and is working with collision experts with the Sûreté du Québec.
They will try to re-create the collision to understand whether any fault lies with police who were pursuing the man.
In the meantime, the road was down to one lane and those walking by left wondering what had happened here.
“Oh my God, that’s bad,” says one woman.
“Somebody died, maybe he didn't do the right thing,” says another woman, “but I am sure he didn't deserve to die, that's for sure.”
