The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) has been called in to investigate after a fatal crash in Calgary.
It happened at around 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday in the 800 block of 10 Street N.E.
ASIRT and Calgary police say the crash happened after Cst. Jens Lind tried to stop an SUV. The officer had turned on the lights and siren and that's when the suspect vehicle allegedly took off.
ASIRT says Cst. Lind turned off the lights and sirens and lost sight of the vehicle.
Moments later the SUV was found crashed into a house on 10th Street. The vehicle was on fire.
According to ASIRT, Cst. Lind and other officers responding to the call fought the fire until the fire department and EMS arrived.
A witness to the crash says first responders did all they could to free the two people in the vehicle.
Jose Zavala praises the first officer on the scene which was Cst. Lind. "He got there first and the kid that was in the passenger side, he pulled him out, The other kid was trapped inside, I mean the impact on the passenger side of the vehicle was so bad that he couldn't open the doors, so they had to bust out the back window and pull him out that way."
The driver was pronounced dead at the scene; the passenger was taken to hospital but later died.
Police insist Cst. Lind was not chasing the vehicle when it slammed into the house. "There is no evidence at this time that any form of a pursuit was initiated," says Acting Superintendent Blair White from the Calgary Police Service.
But because the officer did try to pull the vehicle over before the crash, ASIRT is investigating. ASIRT will want to determine if the officer's actions contributed to the crash.
A Calgary police officer and a resident of the home were also injured in the incident. They were both treated for minor injuries.
