An Ontario woman, visiting Alberta over the Christmas holidays, is speaking out after witnessing part of a shockingly violent chain of events in the Red Deer area Christmas Day.
“We weren’t exactly sure what we first saw because the traffic was starting to get backed up which seemed a little unusual coming out of the north end of Red Deer,” Dani Schmidek told Global News. “And then we saw about three or four cop cars in the ditch and one was stuck and trying to get going. Their lights were flashing and they were really trying to get somewhere fast.”
Schmidek was in a vehicle with relatives on Highway 2 just north of Red Deer Friday afternoon. After noticing the police presence, she said they saw a “huge” front-end loader on the highway with its bucket up, just as it plowed through two large flagpoles as well as a fence before continuing on and smashing into things.
“The cops; it didn’t seem there was a lot they could do because it was just running over everything, but at that point we were kind of getting going again so we missed whatever happened after that.”
What Schmidek didn’t know at the time, was that the man in the front-end loader was being chased by police in connection with a sexual assault and attempted murder earlier in the day. The pursuit of the loader finally ended when police shot and killed the driver. Alberta’s police watchdog is now investigating the shooting.
READ MORE: RCMP release new details about Christmas Day rampage in Alberta
“It didn’t seem like as big of a deal until they started plowing down the flagpoles and the fence and driving through that then we realized this might be a bit bigger situation than we think,” she said.
“I think we were just in shock and wondering what the heck is going on–is someone going for a joyride or a disgruntled employee?” Schmidek said.
Schmidek said the people in her vehicle weren’t scared at the time; instead they were intrigued by the bizarre scene and tried to figure out what was happening.
“We were pretty shocked to learn that the person could be linked to others (crimes),” Schmidek said. “Definitely a lot of shock when we found out that it resulted in a death and everything.”
“We weren’t scared. Because of the craziness of it, we were just kind of a little bit excited about what was going on and trying to figure out what was going on.”
READ MORE: Alberta man fatally shot by police after Christmas Day rampage
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