Police intervene after hundreds pack Hamilton parking lot for street racing event
Published September 20, 2020 at 7:16 pm
Hamilton police say they teamed up with other forces to break up a gathering of hundreds of people in the Ancaster area overnight.
Hamilton police say they teamed up with other forces to break up a gathering of hundreds of people in the Ancaster area overnight.
Acting Staff Sgt. Steve Ley says the force received a tip from a neighbouring police service that aspiring street racers were planning to hold an event in the city Saturday evening.
He says the event eventually drew hundreds of people, packing the parking lot of a local movie theatre and spilling over onto another nearby property.
Ley says Hamilton Police worked alongside officers from Peel and York regions to disperse the crowd, who had left the scene by about 10 p.m.
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He says no charges or fines have been issued so far.
The event took place hours after the Ontario government lowered the limits on indoor and outdoor social gatherings in a bid to stop a recent surge of COVID-19 cases.
Premier Doug Ford said indoor assemblies had to be capped at 10 participants for the next 28 days, while no more than 25 people can gather outdoors.
He issued a statement Sunday decrying what he described as “reckless behaviour” at the Ancaster event.
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