Five arrested in stolen truck pursuits

Five people were arrested by city police after three pursuits involving stolen pickup trucks Friday.

Two of the pursuits were related, the Winnipeg Police Service said in a news release Monday.

Police said they have linked two of the trucks to a series of crimes between May and this month. They include break-ins, stolen licence plates, and the theft of three trucks, including the two involved in the pursuits. The crimes also included the theft of a trailer and hot tub from a business, and the theft of guns and ammunition, among other incidents.

In the first incident, on May 29, someone broke into an apartment building on the 600 block of Ballantrae Drive.

In the last, on Sept. 11, someone stole a trailer attached to a truck parked in the lot of the Super 8 hotel on Niakwa Road. The culprit or culprits used a 2015 Ford F150 stolen from the 3000 block of Pembina Highway on Sept. 4 or Sept. 5. The trailer contained nine guns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and an ATV, among other items.

On Friday, police saw one of the three stolen trucks, a 2021 GMC Sierra 1500, being driven on the 100 block of Fuller Avenue, near the city’s eastern boundary. The driver of the truck sped off — leaving the city and, at one point, going along the banks of the Red River Floodway — before making his way back to the southeast area of Winnipeg.

Officers found the Sierra abandoned on the 300 block of St. Anne’s Road, and police arrested a 44-year-old man at a home on the first 100 block of Bayfield Place.

At about the same time, police pursued the 2015 Ford F150 after officers spotted it. Police used a stop stick on the Trans-Canada Highway, but the truck went south with damaged tires on Provincial Road 207 east of Winnipeg. Officers stopped it in the area of 207 and Municipal Road 53 and arrested a 47-year-old man and a 39-year-old female passenger.

The men have both been charged with more than 20 offences and were detained in custody. The woman faces three charges related to possession of property obtained by crime and was released on an undertaking.

The younger man pleaded guilty in 2022 to driving while prohibited, flight from police and failing to comply with conditions of a release order. He was sentenced to jail time and prohibited from driving for five years.

Last year, he was again convicted of driving while prohibited and failing to comply with a release order, and possession of property obtained by crime, resisting arrest and attempted forcible entry. He was sentenced to jail time.

In an unrelated incident Friday two men were injured after they crashed a stolen truck while allegedly fleeing the scene of a break-in.

A witness contacted the WPS to say two suspects were breaking into a construction trailer on Ken Oblik Drive shortly after 3:30 a.m. Friday.

The police helicopter followed a stolen 2015 Chevrolet Silverado to the area of the north Perimeter Highway and Pipeline Road, where officers on the ground tried unsuccessfully to halt the truck with a stop stick.

The truck failed to handle a turn on a gravel road near Holmes and Poneida roads in the Rural Municipality of West St. Paul, went into a ditch and rolled shortly before 4:15 a.m.

Two men were taken to Health Sciences Centre in stable condition. One suffered spinal fractures, while the other was treated and released.

The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba is looking into the Silverado pursuit because one of the men suffered serious injuries in the crash.

— with files from Dean Pritchard

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca