Cambridge man in wild 401 chase granted day parole

CAMBRIDGE — A Cambridge man who snatched his 20-month-old daughter from her mother and led police on a wild highspeed chase on Highway 401, which ended with his SUV rolling three times, ejecting the child, has been granted day parole.

The toddler landed in a bush and survived.

Jason Bruce, 40, a drug addict, pleaded guilty to five charges, including dangerous driving causing bodily harm, and was sentenced to four years in prison in January.

After getting enhanced credit for pretrial custody, Bruce had only a little more than two years left to serve.

Late last month, 10 months after being sentenced, Bruce was granted day parole. He will spend six months at a residential drug rehabilitation centre in Ottawa and then move to a halfway house.

The Parole Board of Canada noted that a statistics-based tool for predicting recidivism indicates 50 per cent of similar offenders will not commit a serious crime within three years of release. Of course, it also means that 50 per cent will.

Bruce has a long criminal record, including convictions for assault, fleeing police and impaired driving.

“Your community supervision history has been problematic,” the parole board said. “You have incurred additional convictions while subject to probation and your criminal record includes seven breach-oftrust convictions.”

Bruce is seen as a high risk for violence to an intimate partner and to children in the relationship, the board said. But, it added, he wants to get back with his family and “you understand that you must change your behaviour over a long period in order to do so.”

The board noted Bruce will be closely supervised on day parole and “this will help to reduce your risk.”

It concluded, “Your risk for reoffending on day parole would not be undue.”

Bruce can’t take illegal drugs or drink alcohol and can’t associate with anyone involved with drugs. He must tell his parole supervisor of any new relationships. He must take a psychological assessment and follow any treatment recommendations.

The board denied full parole. Court previously heard Bruce, while high on drugs, grabbed his daughter and led police on a high-speed chase, which ended when the SUV rolled and wound up in a ditch.

Bruce’s daughter was ejected through the front passenger window, which had been broken during the pursuit.

A constable found the child lying flat with her head up, crying. She was muddy and her face was bloodied.

She suffered a cut, bruises and scrapes on her face and a scrape near her stomach. Her left eye was swollen.

“It was an absolute stroke of good fortune that no one was killed,” Crown prosecutor Nicole Redgate told court in January.

Without checking on his daughter, Bruce fled on foot. Police used a Taser and arrested him.

It all started at 6 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2015.

After learning his commonlaw wife, Kimberly Lockhart, was ending their five-year relationship, Bruce found Lockhart with their child in her truck on Elgin Street North in Cambridge.

When she locked the doors, Bruce repeatedly punched the driver’s side window and then jumped on the sunroof, shattering it.

Lockhart fled a short distance on foot. Bruce grabbed the toddler.

With his daughter on his lap, Bruce drove across a front lawn and along a sidewalk before speeding down Elgin Street.

A witness called 911 and the hunt was on.

At 6:24 p.m., Bruce told Lockhart in a text he was halfway to London and heading for the United States. “You will never see her again,” he wrote.

Bruce also threatened to burn down Lockhart’s house.

At 6:35 p.m., a Waterloo Regional Police officer found Bruce in his 2003 Chevy Trailblazer in a driveway on Michigan Avenue in Cambridge.

His daughter was in the vehicle. Bruce backed out, almost hitting the cruiser, then drove over the curb and fled at a high rate of speed, almost hitting several cars.

Police did not initially pursue him due to concerns for the child, but instructed several OPP detachments to be on the lookout for the SUV. Officers positioned their cruisers along Highway 401 between Cambridge and London.

At 7:26 p.m., Bruce’s cellphone pinged on Highway 401 in Woodstock. A police officer spotted the SUV and followed it. The child was in the front passenger seat, unbuckled. Bruce had been holding his arm out to try to keep her in place.

At 7:44 p.m., OPP cruisers assembled in a V-formation in front of the SUV in an effort to slow and then stop it. The SUV sped up and evaded police. Bruce foiled the “rolling block” three times.

Near London, a police sergeant pulled in front of the SUV to try to slow it down. The SUV swerved around the cruiser at a high rate of speed.

The officer activated his siren and chased the SUV, concluding that “the threat of immediate bodily harm or death to the abducted child in the vehicle and the need to stop the vehicle outweighed the risk to public safety,” Redgate said.

The SUV was travelling 160 km/h and swerving back and forth across three lanes of traffic. At one point, the sergeant’s cruiser and another cruiser were intentionally side-swiped.

In the end, the sergeant used his cruiser to deliberately strike the back of the SUV, pushing it into the median where it rolled into the ditch.