Dramatic police chase in Abbotsford ends with dead driver

Source: The Province

BRITISH COLUMBIA - A man is dead after leading police on a harrowing police chase in Abbotsford Friday night.

Police spokesperson Const. Ian MacDonald said the 57-year-old man, driving a Ford Explorer, evaded a Counter Attack road block around 10:30 p.m. on Sumas Way by the Hwy. 1 underpass.

Driving westbound in the eastbound lanes of Hwy. 1, the man narrowly missed hitting oncoming traffic. He turned off the highway near Peardonville Road, then continued eastbound in the westbound lanes, colliding with an oncoming unmarked police car.

Undeterred, he continued the wrong way down Hwy. 1, followed at a distance by a police cruiser with its emergency lights on.

The chase ended when the Explorer hit a spike belt near No. 3 Road and rolled to a stop. As officers extricated the driver, MacDonald said, they saw a knife inside the car and noticed the man was bleeding from the chest, so they called an ambulance. The man died en route to hospital from what are believed by police to be self-inflicted stab wounds.

Abbotsford police have called in the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, as the death could be viewed as "in custody," MacDonald said.

"We believe that the driver was the registered owner of the vehicle," he noted. "Obviously on a night like tonight we've got really inclement weather ... the roads are slick. I think we're fortunate at the end of the day that other cars weren't damaged. Based on some witness evidence gathered at this point, there were some really close calls."

The man's name will be released once next-of-kin have been notified.