A 20-year-old Canadian man charged with dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death in the wake of a fiery crash in Ontario was under a lifetime driving ban and made headlines in Maine four years ago after stealing vehicles and leading police on chases.
Sheila Welsh, 65, a grandmother of five in the Canadian province, died Monday when her car was struck on the driver’s side by a stolen silver Ford F150. Police were pursuing the stolen truck at the time. A witness said the speeding truck dragged Welsh’s small sedan more than 300 feet down Daniel Street in Arnprior, about 30 miles west of Ottawa before it finally came to a stop and burst into flames.
The province’s Special Investigations Unit is probing the incident. So far, three subject officers and six witness officers have been designated as part of the investigation, a spokeswoman for the SIU said on Wednesday.
Zachary Lee Wittke, 20, is to appear in court Friday morning in Pembroke. He faces charges of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death, flight while pursued by police, theft of a motor vehicle and operating a vehicle while disqualified.
In 2013, Wittke, then 16 and of Eganville, Ontario, and an unnamed 13-year-old girl drew international attention when they were arrested in Maine after racing across the U.S. border in a chase involving a series of stolen vehicles and collisions with border patrol vehicles. Wittke ran the U.S.-Canadian border at Coburn Gore on Route 27 in a stolen car in the early morning hours, sparking the dramatic chase with authorities. The trip from Eganville to Kingfield, where the two were caught after crashing a stolen pickup truck in the Franklin County town, is about 400 miles if a direct route is followed.
A Maine court sentenced Wittke to 30 days in jail on a charge of aggravated assault for ramming a U.S. border guard’s vehicle, injuring the guard.
In April 2016, Wittke was sentenced to two years in jail and two years of probation after he pleaded guilty to theft of a vehicle, possession of a weapon, uttering a death threat and threatening a peace officer after he recorded a video of himself driving a stolen truck and posted the clip to Facebook in January 2016.
In the clip, Wittke claimed he was “homicidal and suicidal” and challenged police to come after him, saying, “If you chase me, I will make sure someone dies. I dare you to chase me and see if I am joking.” He then claimed to be armed with a hammer, a knife and a ratchet before threatening, “I will kill a police officer.”
Authorities in Killaloe were notified of the video and later found the stolen truck abandoned on Highway 17 at March Road, near Ottawa. At the same time, Ottawa police were called to the Chapters bookstore on Pinecrest Road, where Wittke was barricaded in a bathroom. He was taken into custody after a brief standoff.
At the sentencing, Justice Robert Selkirk also imposed a lifetime driving ban and a 10-year weapons ban on Wittke. He was also ordered to submit a DNA sample.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.