Driver flees police, dies after crashing into pizza shop

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/04/2022 (1283 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A man has died after a car smashed into a Selkirk Avenue pizzeria on Saturday night.

Police say they didn’t give chase after officers tried to stop the car in the area of Selkirk Avenue and McKenzie Street for lapsed insurance at around 9:10 p.m. Saturday. The driver sped off.

The car crashed into the Pizzarama at 518 Selkirk Ave., smashing through an exterior wall. The 27-year-old driver was taken to hospital, where he later died.

The man has not been named by police.

Majid Chaudhary, who has owned the Pizzarama for around three years, said he arrived at the business after an employee who was in the store at the time of the crash called him. The employee told Chaudhary they originally thought there had been an explosion.

“The vehicle was just driving too fast, that’s what the cops told me,” Chaudhary told the Free Press on Sunday while sitting outside of the building.

No employees were injured in the crash, but the building sustained extensive damage. Chaudhary said he’s not sure if the damage is structural or when the Pizzarama would reopen.

He decided to remain on scene to make sure no one tried to enter the building, either through the doors and the gaping hole in the side of the building.

“We got lucky nobody was injured inside, but I feel bad for the guy who passed away,” Chaudhary said.

Hardik Telwar, an employee at a nearby convenience store, caught the tail end of the incident at the beginning of his night shift. He said the scene, before the car was towed at around 10 a.m. Sunday, was brutal.

“No one could have survived that… it didn’t even look like a car,” he said.

Telwar, who arrived in Winnipeg from Windsor, Ont., two months prior, said the incident left him shaken.

“I’ve not witnessed something like this. I’ve never seen something like it,” he said.

This investigation is ongoing. The Winnipeg Police Service is asking anyone who might have witnessed the incident or has information to call its traffic division at 204-986-7085.

malak abas@freepress.mb.ca