Eight criminal charges have been laid against a former Alberta resident in connection with a bizarre Vancouver carjacking that injured homegrown actress Carly Pope.
David Fomradas, 31, who recently arrived in Vancouver from Alberta, was charged Wednesday with theft over $5,000, kidnapping without the use of a firearm, assault with a weapon, mischief to property over $5,000 and two charges each of aggravated assault and dangerous driving causing bodily harm.
Pope’s website (www.carly-pope.com) confirmed she was a passenger and that her brother Kris was driving his BMW when a screaming man jumped on the hood of the car while it was stopped at Cambie and Georgia streets Tuesday morning.
This note was posted by the webmaster on the site: “LETS PRAY FOR CARLY’S QUICK & PAINLESS RECOVERY! WE LOVE YOU CARLY!!! AND OF COURSE THANK GOD YOU ARE OK AS WELL KRIS!! MY PRAYERS AND HUGS GO OUT TO THE POPE FAMILY.”
Their father, Dale Pope, a Vancouver-based lawyer, is quoted on the website saying Carly was thrown from the car and suffered a broken rib, two cracked vertebrae and some cuts on her face which required stitches.
He said his son Kris, who grabbed on to the BMW’s door to try to stop the carjacking, suffered injuries to his ankle, arm and face.
The shaken father told The Vancouver Sun his daughter and son were starting to heal. “They are beginning the recovery process now. It has been a shocking two days for the family,” Dale Pope said in an e-mail message.
Vancouver police Const. Anne Longley refused to confirm the identities of the victims in this incident, but said international media have been phoning local police about the real-life carjacking with the Hollywood link.
Longley said the car’s 31-year-old male driver and the passenger, his 29-year-old sister, were treated in hospital and released. So too was a 24-year-old male bystander, who also tried to stop the suspect from taking the car.
The trio’s injuries included bruising, sprains and lacerations, police said.
The suspect was treated for a skull fracture and is now in police custody. No court date has yet been set.
Longley said a witness at the busy intersection saw a screaming man jump on the BMW and the witness called 911, prompting the man to initially get off the car and walk away.
Kris Pope parked the BMW around the corner to exchange information with the witness when the erratically behaving man returned and this time got behind the steering wheel.
With Carly Pope still inside the vehicle, the man sped in reverse along Georgia, smashing into five cars before slamming into the CBC building at Hamilton Street.
Kris Pope and the unidentified bystander were injured when they tried to stop the man from speeding away in the car.
Witnesses held the carjacker, who had no prior relationship with the Popes, until police arrived.
According to Pope’s biography on her Facebook fan site, she graduated from Lord Byng secondary school in 1998.
She made her American screen debut on TV in 1998 in I’ve Been Waiting for You. Her best-known roles have been as Molly White in 2000’s Trapped In A Purple Haze and as Sam McPherson in the TV series Popular, which started in 1999.
More recently, she appeared in the hit TV series 24, according to her website.
Kris Pope, who was also raised in Vancouver, is an actor and producer.
lculbert@vancouversun.com
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