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Within 25 seconds, officers knew that pursuing a stolen SUV in downtown Saskatoon wasn’t worth the chase. They didn’t know a gun and ammunition were inside.

The vehicle had sped up to approximately 100 kilometres per hour and ran a stop sign at 33rd Street and Spadina Crescent. It slowed down once police backed off.

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Officers waited until the driver — Michael Brent Laprise — abandoned the vehicle in the Saskatoon StarPhoenix parking lot just before midnight on Jan. 27, 2017 and started walking down Fifth Avenue. An officer in the police plane helped a canine unit make the arrest.

Justice Gary Meschishnick sentenced Laprise, 31, on Friday in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench to just under three years in prison on eight charges. Laprise was convicted following a trial this spring of dangerous driving, evading police, possessing a machete for a dangerous purpose and five firearm offences related to a .22 calibre rifle that police found in the back of the SUV. The gun had been stolen during a break-in.