Who drove the van at Michael Stewart?
It’s become a habit, a reflex born of frustration and a need to know. On the nightly drives from the hospital to her Rexdale home, Trina Stewart carefully inspects minivans that cross her path, looking for a dent, a broken window, anything that could be a clue.
After spending long days at Sunnybrook — encouraging her husband Michael Stewart through physiotherapy, just being nearby as he sleeps through much of the day — she can’t help but do
Police now know the colour and make of the minivan that seriously injured the high school teacher in a hit and run
something, anything, to help catch whoever put her husband in a hospital bed.
“He’s so determined, but I think knowing that they’ve caught them, it will be that one step to make him more determined to get better,” said Trina, 30, a part-time kindergarten teacher.
Nearly three weeks ago, Michael, a 39year-old physical education teacher, was run down by a minivan in a strange, late-night incident that occurred outside his home on Barford Rd.
The impact crushed one of his vertebrae, leaving the man who built his life around athletics without the use of his legs. Doctors cannot say when he will walk again.
While the van immediately sped away and the driver has yet to be found, police announced Friday that paint chips extracted from Michael’s clothing reveal the van was a light brown or gold Dodge or Chrysler minivan made between 2000 and 2005.
“This narrows down the type of vehicle we’re looking for, and that may trigger something,” said Toronto police Const. Tony Vella. “We’re definitely looking for the public’s assistance.”
Shortly before 1 a.m. March 14, an egg exploded on the front window of the Stewarts’ home.
Still awake playing video games, Michael called out to Trina to get out of bed. As she grabbed cleaning supplies, he snapped up a baseball bat and ran outside to see if the troublemakers were coming back.
As he stepped outside, Michael heard laughter coming from a minivan as it drove away. Moments later, the Stewarts say, the same minivan returned, then raced towards Michael.
Toronto police have not confirmed that the same people who threw the eggs were in the minivan that struck Stewart.
According to Trina, the vehicle deliberately veered into Michael, who was standing near the road and was not wielding the bat threateningly.
Trina watched as the van struck him, the force throwing him onto the hood. She ran after the vehicle but couldn’t see the licence plate.
Investigators also extracted glass from Michael’s clothing, and from it have determined one of the driver’s side windows was smashed. That indicates what repairs would have been requested if the van was brought into an auto-body shop, Vella said.
If caught, the driver could be charged with crimes as severe as aggravated assault up to attempted murder, he added.
There’s little doubt in the Stewarts’ minds that whoever was in the van was young, out on a joyride and causing trouble in the middle of March break — who else drives around in the middle of the night in a minivan throwing eggs? — Trina said.
Since Michael is a high-school teacher, one of the first theories was that a few students from Sir John A. Macdonald Collegiate Institute piled into a car with eggs, seeking revenge for a bad mark or a few too many push-ups.
But according to students and staff at the Scarborough school — where Stewart is renowned for his many extracurricular activities, including coaching basketball and baseball and supervising the student council — Michael is a most unlikely target for student pranks. “He is one of the most-loved teachers by the students,” said Laura Proctor, a science teacher at the high school. “One of the hardest parts about this is that nobody understands why this happened.” “I highly doubt it was (someone from the school) — he was hugely respected,” said Gr. 12 student Ajith Ravichandran, the student council president. Current and former students have streamed into Stewart’s room at Sunnybrook, sent cards, even brought him a birthday cake. One former player on Stewart’s baseball team now plays in the U.S., and his team recently dedicated a game to the teacher, all donning number 24, the jersey number that’s so important to Stewart that he has it tattooed on his arm. Sajay Jey and Adam Hammond, both Gr. 11 students in Stewart’s phys-ed class, said no matter how popular a teacher is, it only takes a bad grade or one comment to anger a student. “All teachers have someone who doesn’t like them,” Jey said. But hitting a teacher with a car, “that’s taking it to the next level,” Hammond said. Trina and Mike, too, rule out students from the school, with Trina stressing that Michael could think of no issues with a young person at the high school.
The only reason they can think of for why their house got egged that night was that the egg-throwers were looking for an instant reaction from someone awake inside, and their house was the only one that still had lights on, inside and out.
But what prompted the tricksters to swerve and hit Stewart — as the Stewarts believe happened — is unclear. While aiming to narrow the search, police and teachers at Stewart’s school, as well as other schools around Rexdale, are listening for any rumours or knowledge about the incident, Trina said. “Somebody knows,” said Jenn Viger, Stewart’s younger sister, who spends time almost every day at the hospital.
Trina and family are appealing to the driver, those in the car, neighbours who may have noticed a missing van, and especially parents, who may know or suspect something but want to protect their child.
In the meantime, Michael is undergoing physiotherapy daily. The injury to his vertebrae has affected the use of his leg muscles so severely he’s learning to use them all over again.
The man accustomed to leg-pressing 240 pounds is now celebrating small victories: getting out of bed and sitting in a wheelchair for over an hour mid-week was a big accomplishment, Trina said.
The “overwhelming outpouring” of love and encouragement from friends, students and teachers has renewed the family’s faith in humanity that was rocked after the incident, Viger said.
But learning who did this will bring much-needed peace.
“If we caught them, we’d know who they are — that’s done with, now let’s just continue to focus on getting better,” she said.
A family is raising money to help the Stewarts pay for the cost of making their home accessible when Michael is ready to leave hospital. To contribute, contact Viger at 647-984-0016.