The Victoria Police Department faced blunt questions yesterday about how a high speed chase through a residential neighbourhood on the weekend ended with gunfire and a fatality.

A U.S. expert in police tactics, who helped the RCMP develop its policy on police pursuits, said Victoria should follow the trend of other police departments and only chase criminals suspected of violent crimes.

[Translation: More fatal shootings will occur, with the alleged emphasis placed on "violent crimes".... rather than a support of a no-shoot policy. On page A3 of this same edition, the media tried to paint this apparent car thief as potentially violent by stating he was "charged" with assaulting a peace officer - charges, of course, are completely different than a conviction - anyone can be charged with anything. Then there's the fact that we have an article from the police admitting to using SWAT team bandits in dealing with fake guns. Please also note that the "expert" quoted by this paper is from the United States.]

"About 35 to 40 per cent of chases result in a crash," said Geoffrey Alpert, a professor in the criminology and criminal justice department at the University of South Carolina, who has published studies on police pursuits.

"Most progressive police chiefs have realized it's just not worth the risk of the public, and my family your family and their families, to go chase someone who is wanted for running a red light or stealing a car."

[Excuse us, but this was not simply a "car chase", this was a fatal shooting of an unarmed driver of a stolen vehicle that was pinned between TWO ghost cars driven by experienced officers. By the admission of the police, the highest speed this pursuit reached was approximately 70km/h, after they "watched him enter the vehicle".]

Stealing is exactly what started a Victoria chase Saturday night. Police noticed a stolen 1991 white GMC Jimmy SUV near Topaz Avenue, west of Quadra Street. They watched 37-year-old John Seguin enter the vehicle and tried to block his escape with their cruisers. But he crashed through police, leading officers on a chase through nine city blocks at speeds exceeding 70 kilometres an hour.

Seguin apparently swerved to try to hit three officers standing near their cars at a blockade at Hillside Avenue and Blackwood Street. The officers started shooting at the vehicle.

[No, he definitely did NOT swerve, as the witness account shows, and as illustrated by the inserted (below) Times Colonist map. Not only did the driver clearly proceed in a straight line to avoid lane traffic, he would have run into large traffic polls had he attempted to hit the officers. The officers would have had plenty of time to avoid the vehicle, which is logically the reason these experienced officers ALL chose that very location to wait.

We must also remember that these three officers were waiting, in ambush behind this cutaway section of the building, for the driver to enter their line of fire, and did in fact fire at least two shots.

We suggest that the driver was struck with at least one shot at this time, and this likely explains the erratic trajectory (sharply to the left) of the vehicle immediately thereafter.]

 [Click pic for full map]

Police said Seguin drove the SUV past the blockade, spun around, and sped back towards the officers who started firing again.

[Look at the above map yourself; at the location of the officers ACROSS THE STREET; and try to visualize who moved towards who in this scenario. Clearly the officers had to cross the street and start firing AGAIN at the suspect, who was likely already shot and fatally injured.]

Seguin was fatally hit and died later in hospital. It is the first time in the force's history that officers have shot and killed a person.

The entire chase took fewer than two minutes. Typically, police in Victoria and other jurisdictions call off a chase at unsafe speeds or when it enters a neighbourhood where it could endanger the public. But this chase was too fast for that, said Victoria Police Chief Paul Battershill.

[Given the "chase" continued along nine blocks of narrow residential streets, it is exceedingly unlikely that the chase took "fewer than two minutes". In any event, it was long enough for three officers to get out of their vehicles, and find a safe place to wait for the suspect to approach them, with their weapons already drawn.]

"When a chase starts, there has to be an analysis made of what's taking place," he said yesterday. "But that generally takes a minute or two to do and this was over in 90 seconds."

[It definitely took longer than 90 seconds.... Why the Victoria Police feel the need to openly lie about this fact is not known at this time.]

That should have been enough time, Alpert said, adding that perhaps the outcome will spur Victoria to set a more restrictive policy on pursuits.

"It may well bring your chief to his right mind to avoid these things later on," Alpert said. "The problem is, you can't predict what the guy fleeing is going to do. If he's going to escape, at what cost? Why would you chase him into a residential neighbourhood?"

Three officers fired approximately 12 shots from their service pistols to kill Seguin. Some of the bullets hit his vehicle. But they also struck a bus shelter, a parked car, and a moving car..

Battershill said it is a balanced decision to fire weapons.

[It is also a "balanced decision" to wait for someone to come towards you with your guns drawn, and then empty 12 or more shots in a dense residential neighbourhood.

Will it be the balanced decision of the people of BC to end their monopoly of service? To fire the current set of thugs and hire real peace officers, who not only have respect for the lives of those they are paid to serve, but also respect  those citizens who use force 'within the law' to defend themselves with firearms.

There is ONE LAW FOR ALL, and if the above shooting was "just" in their eyes, they owe the people of this province a huge apology for their attitude toward the publics' use of similar force.]

"It's arguable that vehicle hurtling down Hillside Avenue would pose an even greater risk to the public," he said. "You have to balance that out. Had he continued he could have very likely run down members of the public or killed someone in a fatal crash."

An independent investigation of the shooting will be led by Supt. Brad Parker of the Delta police.

[Prediction: No charges will be filed or recommended, despite the fact that bystanders where nearly killed in this apparently needless shooting. Shooters pictured below. Constable Watson (far right) and Johnston are SWAT members.]

Below is source link of map used in above illustration.

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/gallery/05FEB-PoliceChase.pdf

At first, Rose McFadden was relieved when Victoria police called and told her they'd recovered her stolen 1991 GMC Jimmy. But it had been in a "little" accident, an officer warned her. "He said, 'We've located your vehicle and it was in a little bit of a pursuit and it's been in a little bit of an accident,'" McFadden recalled yesterday.

It was no small accident.

Her stolen GMC Jimmy was hurtled down Victoria streets by a thief caught in a high-speed police chase Saturday night. The chase ended when the driver, John Seguin, rammed McFadden's SUV through a police barricade. He used it as a high-speed battering ram, trying to run over three officers before they fired 12 shots, killing Seguin.

[Just for the record (AGAIN) the vehicle was never used to try to run over the police. Have a look at the map in the above story, and pictures below, and you will see the officers not only were waiting for the vehicle, but had several places to secure their safety - including a clump of trees and light poles.]

"I'm horrified," said McFadden, who has worked in the circulation department of the Times Colonist for 16 years. "It's just so horrible to look at the TV and there is your vehicle involved in all this."

Her GMC Jimmy was stolen from a Robbins Parking lot on Douglas Street sometime between 8 a.m. and noon on Jan. 30 while McFadden was at work.

She called police and the vehicle was flagged as stolen.

It's unclear where the GMC Jimmy went from there. But Victoria police spotted it at around 8 p.m. Saturday on Topaz Avenue, west of Quadra Street. Officers watched Seguin get inside and drive away. When police tried to block him, Seguin crashed the SUV through the police cruisers, setting in motion a chase that lasted nine city blocks and culminated in the first fatal shooting by officers in Victoria police history.

McFadden said she's confused as to her next step, and how her insurance company will compensate her for a vehicle that is now a key piece of evidence in a massive police investigation.

The department said yesterday it had impounded the SUV but had yet to search and examine it. McFadden isn't sure she wants to drive the vehicle again. Someone died in it. It is marked with bullet holes. And it was rammed by police cruisers into a hydro pole.

Driver of stolen vehicle pulled slowly onto curb to avoid blocked lanes, Officers were waiting behind clump of trees visible in left photo... They then crossed the street and fired several more times at John Seguin.

If you look closely, you can see police vehicle tracks near where officers were dropped off to wait in ambush. Nearest tracks are believed to be outside wheel of SUV.

Note in below pic that none of the SUV's tires were shot, as would be the case if police were trying to disable vehicle, and MOST NOTABLY, there are NO BULLET HOLES in the front windscreen.

Puncturing tires with spike belt (or bullets) insures vehicle is incapable of significant speed, and stray bullets are safely embedded into asphalt or soil. Though this picture is not the best view, there is every indication from witnesses that all the tires on this vehicle were intact and fully inflated (Note relative height of police bumper in left foreground).

If we are to believe the story of the Victoria Police that this driver drove toward officers, why are there absolutely no bullet holes in the front windshield of this vehicle?