Fatal crash suspect was under lifetime driving ban
The 20-year-old Eganville man charged with dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death in the wake of a fiery crash in Arnprior was under a lifetime driving ban.
Sheila Welsh, 65, a grandmother of five, 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 about 100 metres down Daniel Street before finally coming to a stop and bursting 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, an SIU spokeswoman said Wednesday.
Zachary Lee Wittke, 20, is to appear in court in Pembroke on Friday morning. 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 April 2016, Wittke was sentenced to two years in jail and two years of parole after he pleaded guilty to theft of a vehicle, possession of a weapon, uttering a death threat and threatening a peace officer after he filmed 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, knife and ratchet before threatening, “I will kill a police officer.”
OPP 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 following 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.
In 2013, Wittke, then 16, and an unnamed 13-year-old girl drew international attention after 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. 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.