5-year-old girl killed in crash involving stolen pickup truck in northeast Alberta, RCMP says

Mounties say a five-year-old girl was killed and three others sent to hospital after a crash involving a stolen pickup truck in northeast Alberta.

RCMP Supt. Anthony Hanson says the crash happened Tuesday night near Cold Lake, 300 kilometres east of Edmonton.

He says the girl was in a minivan with her 27-year-old mother, a 30-year-old man and a 10-month-old boy. Mounties didn’t specify the exact relationships of the four people, but said it was a family.

Hanson says investigators determined the pickup was stolen in Lashburn, Sask., about 200 kilometres southeast of where the crash occurred. He says it was stolen three days before.

Mounties say following the collision, a Good Samaritan stopped to offer assistance and the suspect stole that vehicle. Police say they found that vehicle abandoned about a hour later.

Around 1 a.m., authorities say officers located a stolen vehicle with a shotgun in plain view parked in front of the property of what they describe as a prolific offender.

“Subsequent investigation has positively linked at least one offender in that residence to the original accident scene,” police said in a news release.

A 34-year-old man of Bonnyville who was out on bail was arrested Wednesday and charged with various offences, including failing to stop at the scene of a collision causing death and theft of a motor vehicle. He was scheduled to appear in court Thursday.

Hanson says the suspect was known to authorities and had “many police interactions.”