A striking video posted online shows a violent alleged car theft taking place in front of an elementary school on Palm Avenue in Montreal’s Saint-Henri neighbourhood on Monday. The video shows a driver erratically accelerating and reversing a silver vehicle on the street outside the school as multiple people try to stop him. “Watch out! Watch out!” someone yells as people jump out of the way. At one point, as the car accelerates, a person wearing a high-visibility vest can be seen grabbing onto a woman and swinging her to the ground. Just after, the car reverses again, and the front passenger door, swinging forcibly as the car jerks back and forth, smacks the same woman in the face. “Call the cops, please!” someone screams out as the vehicle speeds away. Montreal police (SPVM) confirmed the incident, saying it received a 911 call at 1:10 p.m. “When police arrived on the scene, they were informed that the two suspects, a man and a woman, tried to steal a delivery driver’s vehicle,” said Véronique Dubuc, a spokesperson with Montreal police. “The deliveryman was aware of the thief, so he tried to intervene and restrain the woman. The suspect fled with the car.” The 35-year-old deliveryman was struck by the fleeing vehicle and suffered minor injuries. A parked car belonging to Saint-Henri resident Julius Bau-Martin was also hit. He says he heard screaming and tires screeching and rushed to see what was happening. “You don’t expect those sounds on a street like this,” he said. “I mean, he could have just floored it, went through the fence, and if there were kids out, hit anybody.” Following the incident, police arrested a woman, aged 26, and a man, aged 29. The man appeared in court on Tuesday, while the woman is set to appear in August. They have not been charged with any crimes, but could face charges of dangerous driving and theft.
