Suspect in Saskatoon stolen truck pursuit facing 21 charges

A 32-year-old Saskatoon man is facing more than 20 charges after police pursued a stolen truck across the city on Wednesday morning.

The 39-minute chase involved more than a dozen cruisers and the tactical unit's armoured rescue truck. The four-tonne F550, stolen from a job site at Wiggins Avenue and Cascade Street just before 8 a.m. CST, crashed into police cruisers and miscellaneous cars and trucks in its path as it criss-crossed the city.

Police said no one was injured, save for the suspect. Police ended the chase by ramming the truck on the Circle Drive off-ramp leading to the city landfill, knocking it onto its side on the embankment beside the road. The man was pulled from the truck but resisted arrest, police said. He was taken to hospital with "injuries consistent with a dog bite," according to a news release.

People across the city took to social media as the chase unfolded, many offering live updates on Reddit and posting video to TikTok.

Jordon Dustyhorn was in the Shoppers Drug Mart parking lot at Broadway and Taylor around 8 a.m. CST when he noticed a police cruiser with lights and sirens southbound on Broadway.

"I didn't think much of it at first, until I noticed two police vehicles. One came flying into the Shoppers parking lot and the other stopped on the northeast side of the Broadway and Taylor intersection," he said.

"When I seen that they were in a frantic state I immediately grabbed my phone to record, because I thought something might happening."

Dustyhorn captured the stolen truck, emblazoned with the logo of pipeline company Insituform, careening by with its back doors swinging open, trailing cables and dragging what appears to be a police spike belt. It takes a hard right off Taylor Street, heading north on Broadway Avenue with cruisers close behind.

One officer can be seen trying to throw a spike belt onto the street and jumping out of the way of the truck.

"I was shocked to see a big truck fleeing from the police. Watching the video afterwards, and remembering the officer kind of slipped getting out of the way, I thought that could have ended badly," Dustyhorn said.

Police said the private company was doing sewer work when the suspect, passing on his bike, jumped into the truck and took off. Police said the suspect had earlier assaulted a taxi driver, stolen his car and then drove it into the front of the 1-Stop Convenience store at Avenue P and 22nd Street.

Staff at the store told CBC that the man pepper-sprayed workers, cleaned out the till and then took off. It had re-opened Thursday, with new door fashioned into the hole left by the car.

The suspect is facing 21 charges, including assaulting a police officer with a weapon, robbery, hit and run, evading police, dangerous driving, impaired driving, breaching a release order and breach of probation.