Emotional testimony was heard in court Tuesday from the people who witnessed a Calgary mother get run over in a fatal gas-and-dash hit-and-run. It came on Day 2 the second-degree murder trial of Joshua Mitchell.
Sherri White Vernon told court she was shopping for plants for her house when she heard screaming; moments later she saw a truck on 16 Avenue N.W.
“I remember seeing this woman hanging on the hood of the truck,” White Vernon testified.
Maryam Rashidi died in hospital after being run over on June 7, 2015. She was working as a gas attendant at a northwest Centex gas station at the time.
Court heard she was trying to stop a gas-and-dash when she was hit.
The Crown’s theory is Mitchell went to the gas station with the specific intent to steal gas, and Rashidi tried to “right a wrong” by attempting to stop the truck from leaving without paying.
The prosecution alleges Mitchell accelerated and drove over Rashidi.
White Vernon broke down as she described seeing the fatal impact.
“I kept thinking, ‘he’s gotta stop’…she’s hanging on…and her left leg starts to move towards the wheel rim,” she told the jury.
White Vernon said she saw the truck make an abrupt right-hand turn, and the woman lost her balance.
“I saw everything,” White Vernon testified, “it pulled her under the truck and the truck kept going.”
Watch below: Nearly two years after a Calgary mother was killed in a gas-and-dash hit-and-run, the trial for the man accused in the case is underway. Nancy Hixt filed this report on April 24, 2017.
Another witness told the jury he saw Rashidi hit with both front and rear tires.
“The truck accelerated then braked,” Sheadon Roll testified. “The lady rolled off the front, continued to roll on the road, and then the truck drove over her.”
One man was just leaving Home Depot when he witnessed the incident.
Trygve Tysseland said “the truck would have been going as fast as it could.”
“I saw her hanging on the hood and dropping down and coming out the back side of the truck…like a rag doll,” he explained to the court.
“It was…unreal,” Tysseland said.
Gerald Parcells testified the truck “just gunned it, went right over her.”
One by one, numerous witnesses tearfully recounted the disturbing turn of events.
Emmett Yang testified he saw the woman approach the truck, and heard her repeatedly telling the driver, “stop. You have to pay for that.”
“I made an assumption that something was stolen…she was in pursuit of what I speculated was a theft,” Yang said.
He said he also saw the truck run over the woman.
“She was hurt really bad,” he said.
Yang was one of two drivers who testified of following the truck as it fled the scene.
“At times I was in excess of 100 or 120 km/h,” Yang said of trying to catch up to the truck.
He said he finally stopped when it became too dangerous, fighting back tears as he recalled the pursuit as it went into a residential neighbourhood with children nearby.
“I’m a father and I would have been very upset if someone drove that way around my daughter.”
Chris Swann said he called 911 while following the truck, until it became “too fast and dangerous.”
Members of the jury were visibly upset while hearing the graphic witness testimony–several wiped tears from their eyes throughout the morning.
Rashidi was working her fourth shift at the gas station the day she was hit. She had taken the job after both she and her husband were laid off from Calgary oil and gas companies where they worked as engineers.
“My greatest wish is no family is confronted with (such) a tragedy, especially losing a mother who loves her kid,” Rashidi’s husband, Ahmad Nourani Shallo, told Global News on Monday. “Nothing is worse than looking at a little child staring at his friends with their moms.
“There is no day that goes by that I don’t wish I could see Maryam again. After all this time, I still miss her,” he said.
Mitchell, 22, is also charged with possession of stolen property (truck), theft of fuel and hit and run.
The trial is scheduled for two weeks.
Comments