Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist
A series of three allegedly connected car thefts over a period of 12 hours ended the morning of Feb. 4 when the suspected thief of a truck stolen in Campbell’s Bay crashed it in Blainville, Que. and died soon after, following a police pursuit.
Quebec’s police watchdog, the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI), is now investigating the incident, as it does in all cases when a person dies or is seriously injured during a police intervention or while in police custody.
According to the BEI, the spree began the evening of Feb. 3, when a stolen vehicle was reported in Sorel-Tracy around 5:30 p.m..
The BEI said Sûreté du Québec (SQ) police intercepted the vehicle near the town of Yamaska, Que., at which point the driver fled on foot and the police lost track of him.
At 12:30 a.m. on Feb. 4, a second stolen vehicle was reported in Yamaska. This vehicle was only found another six hours later, nearly 400 kilometres west, in Campbell’s Bay, after the driver pulled over to deal with a flat tire.
Around 3:30 a.m. on the morning of Feb. 4, Campbell’s Bay resident Maurice Morin was out checking road conditions for his family’s plow business, Morin Sand and Gravel, when he came across a car pulled over with a flat tire on Highway 148, just west of the intersection with the 301.
A fireman for 30 years, Morin said he had developed a habit out of stopping to help cars pulled over on the side of the road, so he pulled over to see if he could help the driver.
After realizing he needed a jack from his garage to do the job, he made a quick trip back to his shop on Front Street to get it.
In the meantime, his grandson Steve, who was running his regular plow route, came across the driver, who had moved his car off the highway into the parking lot at Dean’s Grocer.
Steve said the driver hopped in his truck with him for a brief moment to warm up.
“He had a lot of respect. He was kind, actually, and had good manners,” Steve recalled, noting the man, who he figured to be in his twenties or thirties, told him he was from Laval.
“He was happy that he was getting help, and next thing you know, the strangest thing happened.”
Upon Morin’s return with the jack, he learned he also needed a grinder to loosen the spare tire from under the car. This time, the driver of the car requested to accompany Morin to the shop.
According to Morin’s account, the young man followed Morin into the shop, and as he was getting his grinder out, the man quickly exited again, shutting the door behind him. By the time Morin got the door open again – only seconds later – the man was in the driver’s seat of the truck, backing out of the laneway.
“As soon as I turned my eyes, he was in the driver’s seat and gone with it,” Morin said.
Morin tried to hang onto the mirror, and bang on the window with his hand, but the driver wouldn’t stop.
“I was just a good samaritan trying to give him a hand and that’s when he jumped in and stole the damn truck.”
Morin said he called the police, who met him back at Dean’s where the now-abandoned car was still stationed, and they quickly determined it had also been stolen.
The BEI’s report said Morin’s stolen truck was reported to the police around 6:30 a.m. on Feb. 4, and located driving eastbound on Highway 50 near Lachute. At this point the police launched a pursuit, which included a failed attempt to stop the vehicle using spike strips.
According to the BEI’s account, the fleeing vehicle collided with a patrol car and another vehicle further down Highway 50 around 7 a.m. The police then decided to stop chasing the stolen vehicle. About 10 minutes later, it collided with two other vehicles in Blainville.
The suspect was seriously injured in the crash, and was later reported to have died, according to the BEI. The two other drivers involved in the crash suffered minor injuries.
Why the man, allegedly from Laval, was in the Campbell’s Bay area was not clear to either of the Morins, although when they asked him, he said he was visiting friends to do some snowmobiling, an answer neither found convincing.
Five BEI officers have been assigned to investigate the incident, with assistance from the Montreal police force, which will also be conducting its own investigation into the circumstances that led to the crash.