Ontario’s police watchdog says it has charged two officers in connection to a fatal wrong-way pursuit on Highway 401 last spring.
The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) said Friday it has charged Sgt. Richard Flynn and Const. Brandon Hamilton each with three counts of criminal negligence causing death, and two counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm.
The update comes more than eight months after the fatal multi-vehicle crash on April 29, 2024, in Whitby, Ont.
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That night, the SIU said officers with Durham Regional Police were chasing a cargo van that had been identified as a vehicle of interest in an alleged liquor store robbery in nearby Clarington, Ont.
SIU spokesperson Monica Hudon told reporters at the time officers found a vehicle of interest — a U-Haul cargo van — and followed it through numerous streets in Durham Region “as the vehicle drove erratically.”
The vehicle got on Highway 401 at Stevenson Road in Oshawa in the wrong direction and was travelling westbound in the eastbound lanes.
Shortly after, Hudon said there was a multi-vehicle collision involving at least six vehicles on Highway 401, just east of Highway 412, in Whitby, resulting in the death of the child, aged three months, the grandmother, age 55, and the grandfather, age 60.
The driver of the van, who was also killed in the crash, was identified as a 21-year-old man, while a 38-year-old male passenger suffered serious injuries.
More to come.
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