A Vernon, B.C., man who used his Bobcat to chase down two people on a multi-use pathway was sentenced this week to a period of house arrest and has been court-ordered to write an apology letter.
William John Mcrea was convicted earlier this year on charges of assault with a weapon and driving dangerously. In 2022 he ran down two people, one of whom he injured, on a Bobcat skid steer he used in his business because he believed the couple were transients with ill intent.
Judge Jeremy Guild handed down a conditional sentence of eight months for each charge, and they will be served concurrently.
Guild said a portion of the eight-month sentence will be served on house arrest, with the remainder with a significant curfew, restitution, and a letter of apology. A 12-month probationary period will follow.
It’s the first offence that Mcrea had committed, and Guild said it was an “aberration” for a man who has not only been a caring community member but also cared for a close family member who was unhoused and drug-addicted.
“He has been and remains a hard-working man who continues to try to make Vernon a better place,” Guild said.
Even so, his actions outside of his Okanagan Landing Road home that day were significant and Guild felt the sentence was required.
In a decision published Monday, Guild said on Aug. 26, 2022, Tia Myiot and Antonio Savinainen were riding their bicycles from downtown Vernon towards Kin Beach on Okanagan Lake. They were on a multi-use path made for pedestrians, bikes and other non-motorized transport.
According to Guild, they were planning to get away from the drug subculture and to deal with their substance use disorder, and had all of their possessions in the world on their bicycles and in a couple of packs.
Myiot was susceptible to heat stroke and stopped in front of the Mcrae family’s property, in some shade on or within a few feet of the path.
The Mcraes saw the couple and believed they were on their lawn. As such, they called bylaw officers, who told them to call the police. The Mcraes did not make that call, Guild said.
“Instead, they decided to get the ‘street people’ off their property by Mcrae using a skid-steer Bobcat to move the couple’s personal effects,” Guild said.
“Mcrae went outside, approached and told them to leave. They responded and started to move, although they did not think they were doing anything wrong, as they believed there were on public property.”
Mcrae turned on a sprinkler with the intent of soaking Myiot and her boyfriend, as they were not moving fast enough for him. At that point they started to move.
“They again did not move quickly enough for Mr. Mcrae, who immediately went to get his Bobcat, and put on the largest bucket he had to intimidate and strike fear into Ms. Myiot and Mr. Savinainen,” Guild wrote in the Aug. 19 decision.
“He drove it toward the couple. They were within a few feet of their effects, gathering them while Ms. Myiot was still recovering from heat stroke. Mr. Mcrae banged the large metal bucket on the ground and then drove and scooped up their packs and bicycles.”
Mcrae then pushed the couples’ worldly possessions over 100 feet onto the asphalt path.
Savinainen was angry and used a chain to try to stop the Bobcat and a hand saw to damage a few flowers in the Mcraes’ flower bed near the path. Mcrae drove back to their effects and ran over them on purpose to damage them further. He then fled to a nearby gas station to avoid police.
Still on a mission, Mcrae spun the Bobcat over the couple’s effects, including their bicycles, destroying them.
He didn’t know where Myiot was but he struck her with the Bobcat’s bucket as he spun around.
“As a result of that assault, she was injured when she fell to the ground. She was knocked unconscious, suffered pain in her neck, back, head and left leg and had bruises on her head, leg and shoulder,” Guild said.
All of his actions put people at risk, Guild said.
“In short, Mr. Mcrae operated the Bobcat intending to endanger those near him … It was a marked departure from the norm of a reasonable prudent Bobcat operator,” Guild said in his decision.
Guild said Mcrea acted with bias, characterized the couple as street people, and assumed they were or had been doing drugs.
“There was no evidence they had done so. He testified that he concluded without investigating. He did not pause to think whether Ms. Myiot needed any help, or whether she was suffering from the obvious heat. Even if he only wanted them off his property, that is not what he did,” Guild said.
“Mcrae wanted them nowhere near his property, because he assumed that, as street people, they would commit crimes against him. He testified that is what caused him so much concern: he had been a victim of property crimes perpetrated by others he thought were ‘street people’.
“He lumped Ms. Myiot and Mr. Savinainen in the same basket: as street entrenched addicts who were therefore more likely to commit a crime on that date, when in fact she was only suffering from heat stroke.”