Stolen taxi crashed into several businesses, including Cornwall Centre: Regina police
A Regina woman crashed a stolen taxi cab into multiple businesses, including driving it through the city's downtown mall, in the early hours of Saturday morning, police say.
Photos emailed to CBC by a woman who said her son works a night shift at the Cornwall Centre showed broken glass and other damage to the downtown mall's 11th Street doors and to businesses on the mall's lower level.
The mall was one of three businesses the driver of a stolen cab crashed into early Saturday, according to police.
Officers got a report at just before 3 a.m. about the theft of a Co-op taxi theft on the 1100 block of Angus Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues in the North Central neighbourhood.
Police spotted the cab soon after and tried unsuccessfully to stop it, a Saturday news release said.
Just after 3 a.m., the stolen taxi crashed into the Shoppers Drug Mart at Broad Street and 14th Avenue.
Thinking the vehicle was immobilized, police approached it, but it drove away again.
A photo sent to CBC shows damage from inside the Cornwall Centre early Saturday. Police allege the driver of the stolen cab drove though the mall's south entrance, then across its main level and through the north entrance. (Submitted by Elizabeth Simmons)
Police tracked the vehicle for about 15 minutes as it drove at slow speeds, with officers trying to get into position to use a spike belt to stop the stolen taxi.
Just after 3:15 a.m., the cab crashed into the front of another business, this time on the 1800 block of Hamilton Street.
The now badly damaged taxi continued driving north on Hamilton— the wrong direction on the one-way street — before turning west onto 11th Avenue, where it drove through the south doors of the Cornwall Centre, according to police.
The stolen car drove into the mall's main level, but as police approached it on foot inside the mall, the driver took off again, driving the taxi through the north entrance of the mall, near Saskatchewan Drive.
The Shoppers Drug Mart inside the mall also appeared to have been hit, and its front was boarded up on Saturday afternoon.
The front entrance of the Shoppers Drug Mart inside the Cornwall Centre was boarded up on Saturday. (Laura Sciarpelletti/CBC)
The taxi eventually got hung up on the stairs and the driver, a 31-year-old woman, was taken into custody. Because their investigation is continuing, charges against the driver, who was not identified, have not been determined, police said.
Police said owners of the damaged businesses were notified.
When contacted by CBC, the Cornwall Centre confirmed it would be open Saturday. CBC also confirmed that Santa would be there for business as usual.
