The Ottawa Police Service is investigating the death of a 23-year-old man in Baker Lake over the weekend.
Baker Lake RCMP received a call on Saturday about a possible impaired driver in the community, said Cpl. Henry Coman with Nunavut RCMP.
RCMP in Baker Lake spotted a man at about 5 p.m. that day. Police say he was driving a vehicle at first, but he ran out of the vehicle after they arrived and stole an ATV. The man fled on the ATV, and police pursued the man until he veered onto an off-road trail. At that point, Coman said, police stopped chasing him.
"That's the RCMP policy now," he said. "When we deem the pursuit to endanger either the driver or the pedestrians in the area, the pursuits are called off and that's why we did so."
Shortly afterward, the man lost control of the ATV and crashed. He was brought to the local health centre where he died.
Although police are not releasing the name of the deceased, they say the man was already known to them and that he was under conditions of a probation order from previous criminal charges.
Because RCMP were involved in the circumstances leading to the man's death, Ottawa police were contacted to start an independent investigation, along with the the Nunavut Chief Coroner's Office, into the events leading to and surrounding the death.
Coman said RCMP believe alcohol was a factor.
