Ottawa Police are actively looking for a suspect involved in a robbery, theft of a police cruiser and chase in the Westboro area Sunday night.

Police were called for a commercial break and enter on Richmond Rd. near Woodroffe around 10:50 p.m. Kathy Geiger made that 9-1-1 call after witnessing a man break into a convenience store.   

“I heard a smash and I thought that’s not a bottle breaking that sounds like a window, and then another smash and we could see the guy like breaking the window, he was using a baseball bat or something like that, and I thought – that’s pretty bold,” Geiger said.

Geiger said the man then ran across the street with a box in his hands and got into a silver van that was parked outside her apartment. The man fled the scene, followed by police, who tried to block the vehicle down the road when it collided with a cruiser.

Ottawa Police said shortly after the suspect got out of the van and ran into a park in the Hintonburg area, where a scuffle broke out, resulting in a single discharge of the officer’s firearm. No one was injured from that shot.

The suspect then fled the scene in the officer’s cruiser which had been left unattended with the keys inside.

“We all take every precaution to lock up everything we need, but being a police officer you want to catch the bad guy so a lot of things are more focused towards catching somebody then locking up something,” said Cst. Chuck Benoit with Ottawa Police.  

The suspect drove and abandoned the stolen police cruiser near Beechgrove Avenue at Lanark Avenue.

Neighbours near the scene said the K9 unit was brought out to help find the suspect. When Tim Bouma walked outside to see what the commotion was all about, he saw the empty police car in a ditch across the street.

"The lights were off and there were about five or six vehicles around here and five or six police officers as well," he said.

Another resident, Bard Hill, said she saw dozens of police vehicles pull up to her street.

“I heard the sirens, saw the flashing lights coming, cops whipping up and down the road,” she said.

During the chase dozens of officers from Ottawa and Gatineau Police, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were called to assist.

Ottawa Police said Gatineau Police later arrested a 37-year-old man in Gatineau who fit the description of the suspect. He has since been released with no charges.

“He was identified and we were satisfied with that identification, and the investigation is ongoing,” said Cst. Benoit.

Police confirm they are still looking for another suspect.

The following Monday, a clerk at the convenience store arrived to find the store’s window smashed. Sue Firth said the suspect stole hundreds of dollars’ worth of cigarettes and cash.

"There was still all kinds of glass towards the apartment door and all in behind the cash," said Firth. "The cash door was open like this; this drawer was missing and of course there was no money in it."

The Ottawa Police Break and Enter Unit has since taken over the investigation.