'Someone is going to get hurt,' says OPP officer minutes before fatal 401 crash

A police radio recording is providing a glimpse into the moments leading up to a fiery wrong-way crash that killed four people east of Toronto on Monday — and a caution from an officer that someone was going to get hurt amid the police chase. 

The audio, which captures conversations between officers and a dispatcher on an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Highway Safety Division communication channel, is a window into the initial information investigators were working with as Durham police officers pursued a liquor store robbery suspect driving the wrong way on Highway 401 in Whitby, about 50 kilometres east of Toronto.

That chase ended in a fatal collision that involved at least six vehicles, according to the province's Special Investigations Unit (SIU), which examines deaths involving police.

Two grandparents and their infant grandchild were killed in the crash, alongside the robbery suspect himself. Another person was taken to hospital with significant injuries.

One major question that has emerged in the wake of the tragedy is why police officers continued to chase the suspect while he was speeding into oncoming traffic on the country's busiest highway.

The SIU has said that will be a key element of its investigation. Durham police declined to speak about the incident Wednesday, citing the SIU's investigation.

The audio, which comes from the website Broadcastify, reveals police had identified a suspect vehicle with a licence plate at the time of the pursuit.

Two policing experts who spoke to CBC News say the chase could have been called off after that identifying information was obtained.

The incident began at an LCBO location in nearby Clarington, when an off-duty officer reported an attempted theft to Durham Regional Police at around 7:50 p.m. ET.

The dispatcher on the OPP channel first asked units to be on the lookout for a suspect and vehicle linked to that robbery not long after.

"Durham [police] advising there was a male inside the LCBO, he tried to rob the store. He pulled a knife on an off-duty officer," the dispatcher said. She also broadcast that the suspect was driving a U-Haul van and provided a licence plate number to officers, as well as the location the vehicle was last seen.

The dispatcher added the off-duty officer was following behind the U-Haul in a red Honda Odyssey minivan.

At one point, the OPP dispatcher said Durham police had 12 cars following the vehicle, "so we're probably not needed." OPP officers are responsible for patrolling highways in the area.

A few minutes later, the dispatcher said Durham police hadn't been able to stop the U-Haul, and the driver had taken off at a high rate of speed toward Highway 401.