The way I see it it takes two to tango, so go ahead and place all the blame on the criminal, of course they initiated the immediate chain of events, now IMO the police share equal responsibility for this outcome when they choose to continue such a high-risk pursuit over such a petty crime.
Shoutout to Naomi Wu for going after them hard over this back during the height of the pandemic. Let's not forget about her and the fact that she's been muzzled by China.
Poutine eh?