SIU investigating police chase, shots fired

  RICK MADONIK/Torstar News Service

The SIU is investigating the shooting at North Service Road at Third Line.

Police pursuit

• It was not immediately known why police were trying to track the two vehicles in the first place, or what happened to the second vehicle that was not involved in the crash.
• Reports say police pursued a vehicle stolen from the movie theatre lot and the chase ended in a crash a short distance away.  

A police chase ended in a car crash and shots fired by Halton Regional officers over the weekend, and the province’s Special Investigations Unit is now investigating.

On Saturday night, Halton police in Oakville were following two cars believed to have been stolen from a movie theatre parking lot in Oakville. Police located the vehicles around 9 p.m., on North Service Road.

“The vehicles attempted to flee the scene and shots were fired by police,” the SIU said in a news release.

One of the cars fled the scene, travelling east on North Service Road and then became involved in a collision with a Halton police cruiser near the Third Line.

Witnesses said a bullet hole was visible in the side of the rear passenger door of a black SUV that had come to rest in a ditch after the crash.

More gunshots were fired by police at that location and a woman was taken to Hamilton General Hospital with a non-life threatening gunshot wound to the shoulder. The male driver fled the crash site and was later caught by police.

A police officer also received injuries to his hand. Halton police said he was not shot, but they did not say how he was injured.