A mother was taken to hospital with serious injuries and a man arrested after a hunk of metal was thrown off a southwest Edmonton overpass. Several other such incidents have taken place there in recent months.
All but one of the reported incidents have happened at the 53rd Avenue overpass of Whitemud Drive and this latest incident occurred on Wednesday.
The projectile reportedly smashed through a moving vehicle’s windshield and struck a woman who was sitting in the rear seat next to her infant child.
The mother was taken to hospital and treated for a serious, non-life-threatening injury.
Edmonton police said officers were able to identify the accused in the incident as Getnet Teklay, 34.
He was arrested a day later and charged with mischief endangering life, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon.
Since the end of December, several bricks, rocks and a concrete slab have been thrown off the overpass onto the busy freeway below, damaging vehicles and smashing through windshields —sometimes, injuring the people inside.
That included an incident last month in which two men both reported bricks were thrown off the overpass and hit their vehicles.
At that time, police released video showing a man walking along the bridge before crouching behind a banner hung from the railing, and then throwing the objects before walking away.
The banner was removed from the bridge that same day.
Similar incidents happened in early February along the same stretch of the Whitemud.
Police were called to that overpass the afternoon of Saturday, Feb. 10. According to the Edmonton Police Service, a man was standing on the 53 Avenue overpass when he threw a concrete slab into westbound traffic below.
The chunk of concrete hit the windshield of a grey Subaru Outback and a man in the passenger seat suffered minor injuries.
Police said a similar incident happened about an hour later further east, near 99 Street and Whitemud Drive.
Before that on Monday, Jan. 8, Edmonton woman Angela Wu-Kemp was driving west on the Whitemud near the 53 Avenue overpass when a rock came through her windshield.
The first reported incident took place on Thursday Dec. 28, 2023, police said.
Police are investigating whether the most recent event that left the mother injured is linked to the nine previous incidents involving objects thrown off the Whitemud overpass onto moving vehicles.
Anyone who has information about the suspect’s identity or video footage related to these incidents is asked to contact the EPS at 780-423-4567 or #377 from a mobile phone.
Anonymous information can also be submitted to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at www.p3tips.com/250.
More than 20 years ago, a man was killed when an object was thrown onto the Whitemud.
Robert Stanley, 75, died from a blow to his abdomen on June 1, 2002, when a 30-pound boulder the size of a basketball was dropped from a pedestrian bridge near 111 Street and crashed through the windshield of the school bus he was driving.