Motorist charged with attempted murder

A woman accused of intentionally mowing down a senior with her vehicle at a Meadowlark neighbourhood KFC will undergo an assessment to see if she is fit to stand trial.

Donna Colleen Elder, 60, who was originally charged with aggravated assault after the crash last week, will also face two new charges of dangerous driving causing bodily harm and attempted murder, provincial court heard Monday.

Appearing via CCTV from the Edmonton Remand Centre, Elder spoke briefly several times, including when asked if she would consent to allowing her defence team to access her medical records. “That’s fine,” she said. Police arrested Elder on July 18 after she allegedly drove her Toyota RAV4 into the west Edmonton KFC, striking an 85-year-old woman. Police arrived on scene at 156 Street and 87 Avenue and found the elderly woman, identified in court documents Friday as Katherine Triplett, lying on the ground in front of the restaurant in “serious medical distress.”

Security-camera video from an auto-repair shop across the street appears to show a sport utility vehicle strike the 85-year old woman and push her into the side of the restaurant. The SUV then appears to back up and hit the woman again before it crashes through the restaurant wall and stops in the lobby.

Elder and Triplett are known to each other, but police up until this point have failed to say how.

The victim remains in intensive care in an Edmonton hospital in critical condition, Crown prosecutor Brendan Gaunt told court.

Gaunt said Elder seemed confused and “did not appear to understand what was going on in the courtroom” at an appearance before a justice of the peace on Friday. She is to appear in court again next Monday.