HALIFAX -- Nova Scotia's police watchdog is investigating after a 29-year-old man fell to his death from a Halifax bridge following a "slow-speed pursuit" involving municipal officers.
The Serious Incident Response Team, or SIRT, confirmed Monday it's investigating the circumstances surrounding the early morning death.
The agency has the mandate to investigate incidents when police are involved in citizen deaths or serious injuries.
Const. John MacLeod, a spokesman for the Halifax Regional Police, says the incident began as a dangerous driving investigation, when officers tried to stop a vehicle in the Highfield Park area of Dartmouth.
A chase ensued over the MacKay bridge, but the car looped back over the MacKay and headed through Dartmouth towards the Macdonald bridge, where the incident occurred around 2:30 a.m.
MacLeod says the man exited his vehicle on the Dartmouth side of the bridge and ran a short distance on foot before going over the side of the structure.
He couldn't comment on whether the man scaled barriers on the bridge that are designed to discourage people from attempting to jump off.
A spokeswoman for Halifax Harbour Bridges says the safety barriers were installed on the sidewalk and bike lane of the Macdonald bridge in 2009, and are 2.77 metres high.
MacLeod describes it as a "serious and very tragic" incident, and the dead man's next of kin are being notified.
