A baby seriously injured in a collision involving a pick-up truck that was allegedly fleeing police in Winnipeg’s North End in late September has died, police confirmed.
The nine-month-old boy’s mother, Jennifer Dethmers, was killed after a pick-up truck that police said was fleeing a traffic stop around 1:30 p.m. Sept. 26 near Salter Street and Boyd Avenue hit another vehicle in the nearby intersection of Andrews Street and Boyd Avenue.
Four people in the van that was struck — including the infant boy and a child — were sent to hospital in either serious or critical condition, as were the two men in the fleeing vehicle.
Winnipeg police arrested a 43-year-old man a short time later in connection with the incident.
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Armand Joseph Jr. Chartrand, who was taken into custody, is charged with dangerous operation of a conveyance causing death, four counts of dangerous operation of a conveyance, causing death by criminal negligence, four counts of causing bodily harm by criminal negligence, driving while suspended and driving without insurance.
Police are now working with Manitoba Justice “in relation to new charges against the accused,” a Winnipeg Police Service employee said in an email Wednesday confirming the infant’s death.
“Incredibly tragic, we’ve got an infant in the vehicle, a child in the vehicle, a woman who was killed in this crash, tragic all around,” said Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Rob Carver on the day of the collision.
The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba, which investigates serious incidents involving police, has been called to investigate the circumstances of the incident, but on the day of the collision, Carver stressed that police were not pursuing the vehicle as it fled the traffic stop before striking the van carrying Dethmers, her children and partner.
“We pulled up, we attempted to have this vehicle spoken to, and the vehicle fled. We did not pursue it,” Carver said at the time.
