Ontario’s police watchdog says it has charged two officers in connection to a fatal wrong-way pursuit on Highway 401 last spring.
The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) said Friday it has charged Durham Regional Police officers Sgt. Richard Flynn and Const. Brandon Hamilton each with three counts of criminal negligence causing death, and two counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm.
The update comes more than eight months after the fatal multi-vehicle crash on April 29, 2024, in Whitby, Ont.
That night, the SIU said several Durham officers were chasing a cargo van that had been identified as a vehicle of interest in an alleged liquor store robbery in nearby Clarington, Ont.
SIU spokesperson Monica Hudon told reporters at the time officers found a vehicle of interest — a U-Haul cargo van — and followed it through numerous streets in Durham Region “as the vehicle drove erratically.”
The vehicle got on Highway 401 at Stevenson Road in Oshawa in the wrong direction and was travelling westbound in the eastbound lanes.
Shortly after, Hudon said there was a multi-vehicle collision involving at least six vehicles on Highway 401, just east of Highway 412, in Whitby, resulting in the death of a child, aged three months, their grandmother, age 55, and their grandfather, age 60. Two other family members were also in the car and were left with injuries.
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The driver of the van, who was also killed in the crash, was identified as a 21-year-old man, while a 38-year-old male passenger suffered serious injuries.
While the SIU is required to complete its probes into police actions within 120 days, the watchdog said in August it needed more time to complete a “thorough investigation.”
The SIU said two officers involved in the pursuit did not submit to an interview or provide their duty notes, as is their legal right. Nineteen witness officials, and 36 civilian witnesses were designated in the case.
Durham police will be holding a news conference on the update at 4:30 p.m. Eastern.
‘Our family is reeling’
The incident prompted questions about the decision to pursue the van in the wrong direction on the highway.
After the crash, police and emergency dispatchers in Durham were instructed to take a course on pursuits within two months.
Gokulnath Manivannan and his wife Ashwitha were in the car that night, and spoke about the impacts in a statement released in May by the SIU, saying: “Our family is reeling.”
“We are at a complete loss of words to describe the agony and vacuum in our hearts knowing we can never hold our child Aditya Vivaan, who gave us so many precious memories in such a short time, in our hands again,” Gokulnath said.
He added his parents were visiting from Chennai, India, with the sole purpose of spending time with their grandson. They had arrived in Canada only two days before the deadly wrong-way crash.
“My father, who had recently retired at the age of 60, was overjoyed with the opportunity to spend time with his grandson,” the statement read.
“He affectionately referred to this time as the ‘year of grandparents fun.’”
He said the baby boy’s grandmother, “was eagerly anticipating every moment with her son and grandson, planning to make their stay all about her grandchild.”
“The pain of my own injuries pales as I grapple with the shock and loss of my parents and my only son on the same evening and the ordeal continues with my wife’s continued suffering from surgeries and repeated flashbacks of the trauma,” Gokulnath wrote.
Both Flynn and Hamilton are required to appear before the Ontario Court of Justice in Oshawa on Feb. 13.
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