Editor’s note: Following the publication of this report, Kelly Ovayuak was convicted of one count of aggravated assault and one count of breaching probation. Eight other charges were withdrawn. He was sentenced to 57 months’ imprisonment on April 18, 2024, with three years left to serve given credit for pre-trial custody.
A 45-year-old man led RCMP on a chase along the Inuvik-Tuk Highway after forcing a woman into a car, police said on Thursday.
In the early hours of Saturday, April 2, a woman was reported to have been “forcibly taken to a vehicle and driven off” from an Inuvik home, police said in a news release.
Officers found the suspect vehicle on the highway heading toward Tuktoyaktuk, police said, but the driver did not stop when requested and a tire deflation device was used instead.
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“The suspect driver was taken into custody and the female passenger was immediately transported to the Tuktoyaktuk health centre for medical treatment,” RCMP stated on Thursday.
“There were no injuries resulting from the pursuit, nor the tire deflation device deployment.”
Police said Kelly MacKenzie Ovayuak faces seven charges: kidnapping, flight from police, aggravated assault, assault, impaired driving, break and enter, and a breach of probation. RCMP said he was due in court in Yellowknife on Friday.
“Police take the action of engaging in a vehicle pursuit very seriously and only do so in extremely high-risk situations, as was the situation on the Inuvik-Tuk Highway on Saturday morning,” said RCMP’s north district commander, Bruce McGregor, in a statement.
“I am pleased with the outcome of this matter: that no one was injured either during the pursuit or in the deployment of the tire deflation device.”
