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Austin Eaglechief died in an explosion of bent steel and broken glass on a warm night last June, as he led Saskatoon police officers on a high-speed chase across Saskatoon’s north end.

The apparently drug-fuelled incident began shortly after 9 p.m. on June 19, 2017, when officers tried to stop the stolen pickup driven by the 22-year-old man on a quiet cul-de-sac in River Heights.

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It ended just a few minutes later — after Eaglechief rammed the police cruiser, after one of the officers fired two rounds at the fleeing truck, and after it plowed into another vehicle turning left on Airport Drive.

The chase was one of the most dramatic “evade police” incidents reported last year, a 12-month period in which the number of pursuits involving Saskatoon police officers grew dramatically.

Police blame the popular street drug methamphetamine for the spike in chases reported in 2017 — an increase of more than 40 per cent — while hoping it’s an irregularity.