4 days ago
Driver pleads guilty in horrific Boxing Day crash that killed nine-year-old girl
Shocking video was played in a Calgary courtroom Friday showing a stolen, speeding van run a red light and crash into several vehicles, and the aftermath in which emergency workers frantically tried to save the life of a nine-year-old girl.
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Members of Victoria Desjardins' family cried and moaned in pain as video showing the lifeless girl being removed from her mother's car, where police and fire officials attempted to get a pulse while performing CPR.
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Nepoose also admitted causing bodily harm to the girl's mother and older sister, as well as another motorist while speeding through a red light on Macleod Trail.
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According to the statement of agreed facts read in by Buziak and signed by defence lawyers Sam Taylor and Rebecca Snukal, as well as their client, Nepoose was fleeing from police after robbing a Millrise pharmacy and stealing the owner's Dodge Caravan.
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Buziak said officers initially tried to make a traffic stop of the stolen vehicle around 9:41 a.m., but Nepoose sped off.
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The HAWCS police helicopter then tracked the vehicle as it drove on several major roadways in southwest Calgary, at one time accelerating to approximately 170 km/h, the prosecutor said.
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It eventually ended up on eastbound Stoney Trail before heading northbound on Macleod.
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'The vehicle continued traveling northbound on Macleod Trail travelling through the red lights at the intersections of 109th Avenue and also 99th Avenue before entering the intersection of Southland Drive against the red light,' Buziak said.
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Nepoose struck two vehicles travelling westbound on Southland Drive, including a silver Pontiac Vibe being driven by Victoria's mother, Amanda Reitmeier.
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'A video recording of the collision was recorded by a dash camera of a vehicle situated in the eastbound lane of Southland Driver,' Buziak said.
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Reitmeier and her two daughters, Madison Desjardins, 12, and Victoria, were seriously injured, the prosecutor told court.
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