By Alan Woods
A midafternoon police chase that ripped through the heart of Ryerson’s campus Tuesday ended in a crash at Dundas and Victoria Streets, metres from the Tim Hortons coffee shop.
This is at least the second police chase in Toronto in the past two days and follows a Sept. 28 pursuit in which second-year Ryerson dance student Kelly Steadman, 20, was struck by a fleeing car at the corner of Gerrard Street East and Jarvis Street where she suffered minor injuries.
In Tuesday’s incident, witnesses say a police car was chasing a white Chrysler Intrepid westbound on Gould Street Tuesday at 2 p.m. while students on either side of the road looked on. T he car turned left at Victoria Street, just outside Jorgenson Hall, and almost lost control.
It continued travelling southbound to Dundas Street East, where it struck a black Honda Accord, just across from the Tim Hortons coffee shop.
“It was loud,” said Anthony Disarra, a construction worker who witnessed the crash. “It sounded like a bomb.”
He said the driver of the Chrysler fled the scene on foot, passing through the construction site, west along Dundas Square and south through an alley to Shtuter Street.
“He had a whole bunch of gold chains in his hand,” Disarra said.
A hot dog vendor on Shutter Street, near Yonge Street, said an individual with a bag in his hand ran toward the Eaton Centre. He said the man was being chased by two police cruisers and four officers on foot.
He said the man ran into the multistory Eaton Centre parking lot.
Sergeant Len Smart of Toronto police’s traffic services unit said the suspect managed to escape. “There was too big an area involved,” he said.
Police weren’t releasing any other details by early Tuesday evening.
Earlier Tuesday morning, the provincial Special Investigations Unit was called in to examine a fatal car crash at about 1 a.m. following a police chase on Weston Road, just north of St. Clair Avenue.
The chase began in an industrial area at Jane Street and Lawrence Avenue when police noticed a blue Honda Accord being driven erratically. The driver has been charged with multiple offences including impaired driving.
The pursuit, which lasted several minutes, ended near Weston Road and St. Clair Avenue West when the Honda struck an oncoming police cruiser.
One of the six men, who was sitting in the black seat, died at the scene from massive injuries.
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