Thursday, July 12, 2007

Car Pursuit

At approximately 2:35 am this morning officers from the Street Team patrolling in an unmarked police vehicle observed a red 4-door Mercury being driven erratically eastbound on Second Line East just east of Old Garden River Road. The vehicle made a sudden u-turn and began to travel westbound up the Second Line Hill. The officers began to follow this vehicle and called for assistance from patrol officers. Patrol officers attempted to stop the vehicle on Pine Street after activating the roof lights and siren at which time the vehicle did not stop and accelerated to approximately 80 km/hr continuing northbound on MacDonald Avenue. The vehicle pursuit involved the following streets:
Macdonald Avenue, Cunningham Street, Brien Avenue, Poplar Street and Summit Avenue and reached speeds of 85 km/hr. The vehicle stopped at the dead end of Summit Avenue and the male driver, described as being white, thin build, having short hair, and wearing a camouflage jacket and shorts, got out and fled on foot in a southbound direction into the bushes. There was one female passenger located inside the vehicle. Subsequent to further investigation and search of the vehicle the female was arrested. Officers located two knives, a small amount of cocaine, a large amount of cash, a handgun and what appeared to be parts of another handgun inside the vehicle. Officers were unable to locate the male.
The female arrested is 20 year-old Amanda Bruni of 73 Woodhurst Drive. She has been charged with one count of possession of a weapon for purpose dangerous to public, one count of unauthorized possession of a weapon, one count of unauthorized possession of a weapon in a motor vehicle and one count of possession of a controlled drug or substance. She is to appear in court on the 20th of August.

The investigation into this matter is continuing and further charges are pending.

9-1-1 Disruption

On Wednesday July 11th at about 4:20 PM the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service was notified that local ambulance dispatchers had lost their 9-1-1 emergency service. Tests of police and fire 9-1-1 lines revealed that all 9-1-1 service to the Central Emergency Reporting Bureau in the Police Services building was not functioning. Tests also revealed that all the business lines to police, fire and ambulance were functioning. Long distance service, cell phone service and other communication services appeared to be disrupted as well. Media releases were distributed to inform members of the public how to contact emergency services.

During the outage communications were established with Ontario Provincial Police Communication Centre in North Bay and with Central Dispatch Centre in Michigan. During the outage one call for ambulance service was received by the Central Dispatch Centre in Michigan. The information was relayed to ambulance dispatchers by Sault Ste. Marie Police Service 9-1-1 Communicators. One call for city police response was received by O.P.P Communications Centre in North Bay and this was relayed to Sault Ste. Marie Police Service 9-1-1 Communicators.

Bell Canada technicians were successful in restoring a number of 9-1-1 lines to the Central Emergency Reporting Bureau by 7:05 PM. 9-1-1 service was fully restored at approximately 12:20 this morning.
During the outage members of A.R.E.S. (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) assisted Bell Canada technicians and Police Service 9-1-1 Communicators in testing 9-1-1 phone lines to confirm that 9-1-1 service was functioning to all emergency service providers.

The Sault Ste. Marie Police Service would like to thank the members of A.R.E.S., Bell Canada technicians and the media agencies for their assistance during the service interruption.

The following persons will be appearing in bail court this morning:

1) 47 year old Ronald Williams of no fixed address was arrested on the 11th of July around 9:30 am on Trunk Road on outstanding warrants and charged with one count of fail to appear court on the 7th of May for threatening related charges from the 26th of February 2007.

2) A 17 year-old male was arrested around 8:25 pm on Bay Street on outstanding warrants and charged with one count of fail to appear court on the 5th of June and one count of possession of property obtained by crime.

3) A 13 year-old male was arrested on the 11th of July at around 8 pm on Farewell Terrace and charged with one count of assault, one count of breach of a release document and one count of breach of probation under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. It is alleged that the accused was watching a soccer game at the Tom Tipton Field on Elliott Road when he got into a verbal argument with another male youth known to him and punched him in the face. The victim received injuries not requiring medical attention. At the time of the incident the accused was on release documents and probation with conditions to keep the peace and be of good behaviour.

Possession of Property Obtained by Crime & Drugs

20 year-old Jesse Fantham of 146 Pim Street was arrested at around 12:30 am on the 12th of July on Pim Street and charged with one count of possession of property obtained by crime and one count possession of a controlled drug or substance. It is alleged that city police were conducting routine patrol when they observed a vehicle eastbound on Albert Street East that had three males inside and the driver and one of the passengers appeared to be sharing and smoking from a hash pipe. When the license plates were ran and checked by officers, they discovered that the plates had been reported stolen on the 9th of April. The vehicle was stopped on Pim Street. It is alleged that the accused was the driver and the vehicle belonged to him and he was found to be in possession of a hash pipe and a small amount of marihuana. He is to appear in court on the 13th of August.

Motor Vehicle Collision - 2 Injured

On the 11th of July at approximately 8 am city police attended at Fourth Line East and Glengary Gate Crescent for a motor vehicle collision that sent two persons to Sault Area Hospital with what appears to be non-life threatening injuries. A black ford pick-up that was being operated by a 24 year-old male was eastbound on Fourth Line East when a blue GMC pick-up being operated 18 year-old male pulled out in front of him from Glengary Gate Crescent attempting to make a left turn onto Fourth Line East. The black ford pick-up attempted to swerve to avoid the collision but contact was made and resulted in the black ford pick-up veering off the road into a ditch and colliding into a tree. The driver and a 44 year-old male passenger in the blue GMC pick-up were transported to Hospital by ambulance. As a result the 18 year-old driver of the blue GMC pick-up, Todd Hicks of 39 Elaine Court has been charged with one count of fail to yield to traffic on through highway and one count of driver-fail to wear seat belt under the Highway Traffic Act of Ontario.