At around 2:20 pm on Tuesday, the RCMP in Beausejour received a call from a suspect driving in the area. Mounties said the license plate on the vehicle revealed that it had been stolen from Winnipeg. When a police officer found the vehicle in a car park on Selch Street in Beausejour, they turned on the emergency lights and were about to leave the cruiser. However, the RCMP said the stolen vehicle reversed, hit the police cruiser and then drove away. The officer was not injured. Officers at Lac Du Bonnet were informed that the stolen vehicle was heading in and set up a roadblock on Freeway 15 in the Whitemouth RM. “The suspicious vehicle stopped at the roadblock and the police spoke with the driver in an attempt to get him to turn off the vehicle and get out. However, he refused and fled,” the RCMP said in a press release. “Officers expected this to happen and they had already spread a pin belt.” The RCMP said the vehicle went over the spike belt and took off as Mounties continued to monitor it. It was then that Bridget Barron, a local resident, told CTV News Winnipeg that she had a painful experience. She was at home near the Whitemouth River when she saw an SUV tearing up in her backyard. “All I saw was this SUV coming towards my window,” he said. “I thought I was going to die, because when I saw this SUV coming I thought, ‘This is it, I’m dead.’ The driver ended up driving away from Baron’s house through her backyard, losing car parts in the process, before stopping on the river bank behind her house. “I ran backwards because I thought someone had a heart attack – that was my first reaction,” Barron said. “Then the police came and just told me to go back in and lock the doors.” He said the whole area was cordoned off as several police units, including a helicopter, began searching the area. Mountis said that with the help of a police dog, a suspect was found hiding in a shed on a farm property. “The suspect appeared to be suffering from an overdose,” Mountis told a news release. “Officers administered Naloxone and provided first aid until emergency medical services arrived.” The suspect, a 26-year-old from the RM of St. Clements was taken to hospital and later released. He now faces charges under the Highway Traffic Act, along with multiple criminal charges, such as possession of property obtained from a crime, dangerous driving, failure or refusal to comply with a request, handling a vehicle while having a disability and non-compliance with a release order. The charges have not been proven in court. The RCMP said the investigation is ongoing. -with files by CTV’s Mason DePatie and Kayla Rosen
