Police have released new aerial footage that shows a motorcycle travelling at speeds in excess of 200 kilometres an hour in York Region before its rider later ditched the vehicle in an underground parking garage and attempted to evade arrest by hoping in a rideshare vehicle.
Police say that officers were on patrol at around 10:30 a.m. on July 4 when they initially spotted the motorcycle travelling at a high rate of speed in the northbound lanes of Hwy. 404 near Bloomington Road.
The York Regional Police helicopter was in the area and was used to follow the motorcycle to a gas station on Elgin Mills Road, where police say its rider stole a quantity of gasoline before fleeing the scene.
At that point, police say that the motorcycle got back on Hwy. 404 before entering westbound Hwy. 407 where it was seen “lane splitting, weaving through traffic and reaching speeds in excess of 200 km/h.”
The footage, released by police on Thursday, shows the motorcycle speeding by traffic in a left passing lane and, at one point, narrowly travelling between a vehicle and a bus before blowing through a red light.
In another clip further down the highway, the motorcycle is seen veering onto an off ramp at the last second, cutting a transport truck off in the process.
“Last second squeeze to get around a transport truck to go westbound 401. He is flying,” an officer is heard saying from the helicopter.
Police say that the suspect eventually came to a stop at a business on Avebury Road in Mississauga.
The footage shows him wheeling the motorcycle through a regular door leading to the building’s underground garage with the aid of an accomplice.
Police say that the suspect then left the premises in a rideshare vehicle but was arrested as the vehicle arrived at his residence in Richmond Hill.
Amir Hassan Monfared, 37, is facing six charges, including stunt driving and dangerous operation.
Police say that the officers later located the motorcycle inside the building and found that it had been outfitted with a counterfeit licence plate.
