First, around 7:30 p.m., a call was placed to the SPS central office. An individual in his thirties was preparing to leave a convenience store in downtown Chicoutimi with his vehicle, visibly intoxicated.
The patrol officers arrived on the scene too late. The thirty-year-old had already left. This did not prevent the police from catching up with him a few moments later. The driver refused to submit to the authorities, even trying to escape them.
The SPS agents overpowered him, but first, the thirty-year-old hit the police vehicle while trying to back up. When arresting the fugitive, the police noticed that the person they had just arrested was serving a sentence in the community.
This therefore means that the individual had to comply with certain conditions. He also had to respect certain rules, rules which he flouted. When brought to SPS headquarters, the alcohol-impaired man refused to provide a DNA sample.
Instead, he threatened the police and hindered their work, suggested Alexandre Gauthier, the SPS spokesperson.
The driver therefore ended up in the cells of the Saguenay municipal police department. He was due to appear virtually on Saturday morning.
The day before these events, a large-scale police blockade was held in Chicoutimi. It must be believed that the initiative did not “mark the minds” of everyone. (Tom Core/Archives The Daily)
A repeat offender caught
A few hours later, around 9:20 p.m., in Jonquière, the authorities were called to intervene with another drunk driver. A man in his sixties was driving his car erratically. It was making flames. It didn’t appear to be roadworthy.
The police intercepted the sixty-year-old. They quickly noted his drunkenness and discovered, by consulting his file, that he was a repeat offender in terms of driving while impaired.
The man was taken to the police station. His vehicle was kept as criminal property by the authorities.
Two other cases of interest
The patrol officers’ night continued and another case of impaired driving presented itself to them in the Chicoutimi district. This time, it was outside the bars that it all happened. A 19-year-old young man took to the road in his car when he shouldn’t have.
The patrol managed to find the young adult before he reached his destination. The police arrested him. The driver cooperated with the police. He was therefore released on a promise to appear.
Then, at the end of the evening, the police were summoned to come and meet a party-goer who was disturbing the atmosphere in a bar in Saguenay. Once they arrived on scene, the officers became aware that the individual in question was the subject of a warrant of incarceration. The man in his sixties was arrested and will return to his cell in prison, concluded Alexandre Gauthier of the SPS.
