A teenage couple was killed in a police pursuit that ended in a head-on collision in Hamilton on Thursday morning.
The fatal crash took place as Waterloo Regional Police were chasing a vehicle along Highway 6 after getting word of a possible abduction.
After the collision, Waterloo Regional Police Insp. Mike Haffner said police were called to King Street East in Cambridge, Ont. at around 9:30 a.m. on Thursday for a report of a possible abduction and assault of a female.
Officers then located a vehicle driven by a male and carrying a female passenger, which they began to pursue after the driver neglected to stop.
While the victims of the crash have not been identified by police, CTV News Toronto confirmed the driver’s identity while speaking with his older sister Chloe Wehrle on Friday.
Speaking about her brother – identified as 15-year-old Nathan Wehrle – Chloe Wehrle said “stealing cars was his thing” but added that “killing and abducting people was not.”
She said her brother was a genuine person who always wanted to help others.
“Ever since he was a kid he would just spend all of his birthday money on his friends,” she said. “There was nothing else that he would rather do than to just make somebody else happy.”
Chloe Wehrle said the vehicle involved in the crash belonged to her friend, which was stolen by her brother
The vehicle – later identified as a red Pontiac G6 – collided head-on with a transport truck on Highway 6 near Mountsberg Road in the area of Freelton, a rural area of Hamilton.
The teenage couple was pronounced dead at the scene. No other injuries were reported in the crash.
After the crash, officials would not confirm if the teenage girl in the vehicle was in fact the subject of the abduction investigation.
“I just want everybody to know that my brother would never do something like that,” Chloe Wehrle said. “My brother would never trap somebody.”
“I just really need some answers, something to help.”
The pizza place where the abduction investigation began has provided surveillance footage to officers to help with the investigation, police said. This footage has not been publicly released.
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit was called in to investigate the crash. As well, the internal investigation has been turned over from Waterloo Regional Police to members of the OPP.
“Because this primary investigation… does involved members of our organization, we’ve asked the Ontario Provincial Police to conduct an independent investigation,” Insp. Michael Haffner told CTV News on Friday.
“We’re asking the OPP to conduct a fair and transparent investigation on our behalf.”
The SIU is called to investigation any interaction between an Ontario police officer and a member of the public that results in death, serious injury or an allegation of sexual assault.
