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The wheels of justice sped up on a Sunday evening with the daring intervention of an Edmonton group of personal electric vehicle riders.
The Edmonton Police Service were aided in their apprehension of a man suspected in the hit-and-run death of a 68-year-old man who was a pedestrian on Oct. 11 when he was hit by an electric dirt bike on the Dudley B. Menzies Bridge, the walking path beneath the LRT bridge next to the High Level Bridge. An autopsy last week confirmed his death was accidental and caused by blunt force injuries.
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On a group ride on Oct. 13, around 9 p.m., members of an online social media group for Edmonton personal electric vehicle riders were enjoying a wheel around town when they encountered a man on his electric dirt bike on the south side of the blue bridge.
They recognized him from encounters at the same spot immediately before and after the Friday night crash, said rider Terry McIntyre.
“They went up to him and engaged in a little conversation with him. And while they were talking with him, one of my other buddies walked up and took the key out of his bike so he couldn’t flee,” McIntyre said.
“Then they started to grill him.”
He said the members observed what appeared to be blood on the suspect’s pants and what appeared to be blue paint on his bike.
“He literally jumped off his bike and ran into the bush,” McIntyre said.
“Then he took off his helmet and he took off his pants, and he come running out of the bush, and the group yelled to another group of car enthusiasts who were down there playing music and showing off their cars. They yelled to them to grab that guy, and (the car enthusiasts) ran over and grabbed the guy.”
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The group held the suspect until the police came.
Police arrested Edmonton resident Johnathan Clarke, 25, and charged him last Wednesday with dangerous driving causing death, criminal negligence causing death and fail to stop after an accident resulting in death.
The arrest incident made what happened two days earlier make more sense.
McIntyre said the Oct. 11 encounter started innocently enough, with the riders leaving Emily Murphy Park to cross the LRT bridge. They had a friendly encounter with a man they’ve identified as Clarke. He was riding an electric dirt bike.
They chatted with him and told him about the Facebook group, which he immediately joined with the help of his cellphone, and everyone went on their separate ways
“Then he crossed the bridge, and that’s when the accident happened,” McIntyre said.
Following the encounter, the riders met up with McIntyre at the legislature, telling him about the accident.
McIntyre took off to see if he could help.
“On my way down the hill to the blue bridge from the legislature, I saw the suspect riding or pushing his bike up the hill,” he said.
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“I slowed down, took a look at him, realized I didn’t know him, and continued on my way to go and help the fella.
“We ended up helping EMS put him on the gurney.”
The suspect then came riding across the bridge to the scene of the original accident, McIntyre said.
“He asked us what had happened. We told him what had happened, and he rode off. A couple of minutes later, a lady came walking up the bridge, and she told us that he was the suspect. So me and another friend took off looking for him, but we couldn’t find him,” he recalled.
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