Ontario’s police watchdog said Wednesday its investigation into a wrong-way police chase on a highway outside Toronto which resulted in a multi-car crash that killed four people, including an infant, is still ongoing.
“Due to the volume of evidence the unit has had to collect, process and consider, the SIU continues its work to ensure a thorough investigation is completed,” the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) said in a news release Wednesday, 120 days after the collision.
The April 29 crash happened after a police chase that began with an alleged liquor store robbery in Bowmanville, Ont.
An off-duty officer witnessed the alleged robbery, called it in, and a police cruiser pursued the suspect, who was driving a white U-Haul van. Both the suspect vehicle and the cruiser were driving the the wrong way on Highway 401 in Whitby, about 50 kilometres east of Toronto.
A passenger involved in a fatal crash on Ontario’s Highway 401 last month is facing a number of criminal charges over the events that led up to the crash. Manpreet Gill is accused of robbing a liquor store shortly before being pursued by police in a high-speed chase going the wrong way down the busy highway.
That chase ended in a fatal collision that involved at least six vehicles, according to the SIU, and which devastated an entire family.
The crash killed Aditya Vivaan, who was three-months-old, and his grandparents Manivannan Srinivasapillai and Mahalakshmi Ananthakrishnan, who were visiting from India. The robbery suspect, who was driving the U-Haul, was also killed. A passenger in that vehicle, who faces separate robbery charges, was seriously injured.
The SIU says it is in possession of post-mortem results for the four victims.
The SIU says it is reviewing a substantial amount of evidence, including video obtained from in-car camera, drone footage and police body-worn camera footage. It said in June it was reviewing more than 100 different videos and had spoken to 36 civilian witnesses, as well as 19 police officers. The two officers who are being investigated had not agreed to an interview or provided their duty notes, the SIU said at the time.
The SIU is an independent government agency that investigates the conduct of police officers that may have resulted in death, injury or the discharge of a firearm, or led to allegations of sexual assault.