The chase started in Transcona and went around the west Perimeter Highway to St. Mary's Road, where the man, at the wheel of a stolen car, headed back into the city. Witnesses said there were 10 to 15 police cruisers chasing a late-model red Lancer up St. Mary's.

"There must have been 10 cruisers," said the witness. "They were definitely going 80, 90 kilometres per hour," she said. A second witness estimated he saw up to 15 cruisers when he snapped celphone photos of the aftermath of the chase.