Carjacking victims take stand

A number of attempted carjacking victims took the stand Tuesday to detail what happened when a silver minivan pulled up to their vehicles on July 31, 2012.

Police allege Michael Edward Ellis was the driver of that minivan, and after first shooting at officers on Boucherie Road in West Kelowna, he tried to forcefully commandeer multiple vehicles on Westside Road during an hour-long chase with police. Ellis is currently on trial for attempted murder, pointing a firearm, and 20 other charges stemming from that same incident.

Ashley Craig was driving her 2007 Volkswagen Golf southbound on Westside Road, about 10 kilometres south of Fintry, when she was forced to stop for flaggers around 1:30 p.m.

She told the court that a silver Dodge Caravan soon pulled up alongside her car facing northbound. The driver, which she identified in court as Ellis, opened his driver side door into her car and got out.

He then yelled at her to “get out of the car” multiple times, to which she refused and instead demanded to know what was going on. Finally the man pulled out a gun and pointed it against her shoulder, Craig said.

That’s when she relented and got out. By this time, she told the court that the other man seen in the passenger seat of the minivan had moved into her car, as did a dark haired female who had also gotten into the back of her four-door car.

Police say the other two people involved were Shawn Adam Wysynski and Ashley Collins, both of whom have already pleaded guilty to lesser charges but have not been sentenced.

After exiting her vehicle, Craig says the driver of a red Pontiac Cruiser stopped ahead of her began moving towards her car, asking if everything was OK.

She mouthed words to him that the man had a gun, and then Craig ran north to get away from the scene. She testified that moments later, the same silver minivan raced past her – also heading north – and she noticed the rear window had been “shot out”.

Asked by Crown counsel Murray Kaay how the incident had affected her, Craig became red in the face and began to tear up as she reached for a tissue.

“It scared me,” she told the court. “It scared me.”

Mark Langnead also took the stand Tuesday and told the court about his experience that day while stopped on Westside Road with his son, who was 11-years-old at the time.

They had come to a stop in order to allow some mountain goats to pass when a van entered the oncoming lane and pulled up alongside Langnead and his son.

“They were screaming inside the vehicle and using profanity,” he said, who noted his windows were down at the time.

“The driver yelled ‘get him',” added Langnead, referring to himself.

That’s when the van lurched forward and parked at a 45-degree angle in front of Langnead’s car. The van’s passenger exited the vehicle brandishing a gun and came towards the startled father as he quickly rolled up the windows.

“At that point I noticed a handgun in his hand,” Langnead told the court.

“I immediately noticed the severity of the situation.”

Langnead said the man ran up to his driver's side window and repeatedly tried to smash it out with the butt of a gun, which he later recognized as being very similar to a "polished snub nosed revolver" entered as evidence. He estimated the man struck the window five or six times.

“I was surprised the window didn’t break. He was enraged.”

This confrontation took about 30 seconds Langnead estimates, and when he looked forward again he saw a female directly facing him and yelling.

Langnead told the court he did not see the lady exit the van, nor did he previously hear any women’s voice when the van pulled alongside his car – he only testified to hearing two male voices.

Both people then got back into the van according to Langnead, and the next thing he noticed was a large football-sized hole in the van’s back window.

The father also told the court how “very disturbing” the incident was to his young son, who refused to get out of the car and was crying at one point.

The trial continues this week in Kelowna.