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Nova Scotia’s police watchdog is investigating after a Halifax Regional Police vehicle struck a 37-year-old man as officers were pursuing him for allegedly shoplifting from a grocery store.
Police were responding to a shoplifting complaint from the Atlantic Superstore on Quinpool Road on April 26 when they located the suspect on a bike on Nora Bernard Street before he turned onto Maynard Street in downtown Halifax.
The cyclist and the police vehicle were both travelling against traffic down the one-way street when the incident occurred. The suspect was then transported to the hospital where he was diagnosed with a fracture.
A statement from the Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT) on Wednesday said they assumed responsibility for the investigation “after review of the medical records and due to the serious injury of the male.”
SIRT operates in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick as an independent police oversight that investigates incidents involving police.
Halifax Regional Police declined an interview request from CBC News immediately after the incident but said that it was reviewing the incident internally.
Police later said the cyclist would appear in court at a later date facing charges of theft under $5,000.
Citizen complaint
Wren De La Rue lives on Maynard Street and saw the aftermath of the incident through their window.
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“We saw the cop get out of his car and [he] started cuffing the man on the ground, whose back tire was bent in half, and the cruiser was more or less wrapped around this pole,” De La Rue told the CBC last week.
De La Rue filed a complaint with the Nova Scotia Police Complaints Commissioner and said they’d like to see a proper investigation.
“I can’t help but continue to wonder what would have happened if the small child under four who lives three houses up from my apartment were walking the street and if that telephone pole hadn’t been there,” wrote De La Rue in the written complaint.
“How do you justify hitting someone with a vehicle for theft of food? How do you justify the amount of taxpayers’ dollars spent, all because someone was hungry and stole something to eat?”
De La Rue says they haven’t heard anything from the complaint commissioner since submitting the complaint on April 29.
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