- Dramatic video shows a stolen Ram pickup crashing into a storefront in downtown Toronto
- A police horse and officer were struck as the driver tried to escape
- There were no serious injuries, and the driver and passenger were arrested at the scene
Two people were arrested after a bizarre episode in Toronto after they tried to escape from police in a stolen Ram pickup truck. Not only did they smash into a storefront on a busy downtown street, but they struck a police horse and an officer in the process.
It all happened in early November in a stretch of Queen Street West, a busy thoroughfare that’s a popular spot with residents and tourists for its numerous restaurants and funky stores. Fortunately, no one was hurt outside of the minor injuries sustained by the cop and the steed, along with the criminal who’d been behind the wheel.
Police later reported that the miscreants, 33-year-old Jonathan Chabot Desrosiers and 30-year-old Cedar Nicholas, were already out on bail. This latest what-the-f-were-you-thinking stunt has netted them charges of theft of a motor vehicle and possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000. Desrosiers, who was apparently driving the truck, faces further charges related to dangerous driving, endangering public safety, property damage, assault on a police officer, and injuring the horse.
According to a police representative, the cops got involved when they received an alert from an automatic licence plate reader, which identified the truck as being stolen. The mounted officers responded and tried to take control of the situation, but the driver backed up over the sidewalk and tried to take off. He was hit by a couple of police cars, which sent the truck up over the curb and into the front of a store. The driver and passenger then bailed and tried to run away, but fleet-footed officers soon caught up with them and slapped on the cuffs.
That police rep also said there wasn’t any pursuit of the stolen truck, and that everything – spotting it and then stopping it – was “basically in the same area.”
The officer clipped by the Ram was taken to hospital with minor injuries, as was the bad guy who’d put the truck into the store. The police horse, a four-year-old Clydesdale named York who’d been on the force for a year, was struck in the chest and leg. He had no visible injuries but was sent to a veterinary hospital anyway as a precaution. He received a clean bill of health, and was released and returned to his stall at the police stables — and we’re very glad to hear that, since no one wants to be rammed with a Ram under any circumstances.