Rampaging SUV driver remains in custody

By Canadian Press

A woman armed with a machete, who tried to run over an RCMP officer with an SUV, remains in custody pending a bail hearing. 

Jolene Nicole Sinclair, 35, appeared in Meadow Lake ProvincialCourt Jan. 20 with her co-accused Stephane Joseph Leclerc, 50. The pair was arrested Jan. 18 at Makwa Sahgeichan First Nation after Loon Lake RCMP received a report from the Pierceland RCMP Detachment about a suspicious man driving a grey SUV in a farmyard.

The officer located the vehicle on Highway 26 north of Loon Lake but the driver sped away when the officer tried to stop them. The vehicle was spotted a short time later at a gas station in Makwa Sahgeichan First Nation and the officer arrested the man. 

But when the officer was taking the handcuffed man to his police truck, a woman passenger of the SUV struck him from behind. The officer took the man to the ground to keep control of him. 

According to RCMP, the woman ran back to the SUV and armed herself with a machete, got into the driver’s side of the SUV and accelerated towards the officer, who was still on the ground. The officer, however, was able to get himself and the man to safety. 

The woman then tried to turn the SUV around and accelerate towards the officer again before she lost control of the vehicle and smashed into the side of a gas station causing extensive damage. 

Officers from the Prince Albert Crime Reduction Team, nearby detachments and EMS assisted. The officer arrested the couple. No one was injured in the incident. 

When RCMP searched the SUV they found bolt cutters, knives, a machete, six rifles, three semi-automatic handguns with five loaded magazines, bags of ammunition, a revolver, a black ski mask, and leather gloves. 

Both Sinclair and Leclerc weren’t released from custody when they appeared in Meadow Lake provincial court Jan. 20. A bail hearing is set for Feb. 6.

Lisa Joy, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Battlefords Regional News-Optimist

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