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RCD to the rescue….
Carjacking victim salutes Hwy. 401 'hero'
Posted: March 19, 2009, 10:04 PM by Barry Hertz
By Matthew Coutts, National Post
The lives of a woman volunteering with a religious group and a veteran soldier heading to the funeral of a fallen comrade connected briefly this week, when he came to the woman’s aid after a man allegedly fleeing the scene of a murder carjacked her van.
Nicole St-Georges, 65, was driving along the Highway of Heroes in a GMC Savana passenger van when a man driving a minivan tried to force her vehicle — with a large decal of an angel on the door — to the side on the afternoon of March 16.
Ms. St-Georges, a 15-year volunteer with Universe/City Mikael Publishing, a non-profit publisher of religious and motivational material, was on her way to join authors Kaya and Christiane Muller on a cross-Canada speaking tour.
Still too shaken from the incident to speak publicly, Ms. St-Georges allowed Kaya Muller to tell the story of her run-in with a suspected murderer, and the help she received from a soldier in full military uniform, on his way to attend the funeral of Trooper Marc Diab.
“We are so happy she is all right. It was a tragedy, we didn’t know what direction it would take when everything happened,” said Mr. Muller yesterday.
“He just followed her on [Highway] 401 and he chased her.… He tried to stop the van, he was on the left side and then the right side. She didn’t know what was going on.”
The man is believed to be 28-year-old Justin Lima, who is now charged with murdering his mother inside her Brampton home earlier that afternoon.
Police allege that Mr. Lima had tried to swap his father’s minivan for a stolen vehicle to evade capture as he drove west. (It is unclear why he was heading back in the direction of Brampton at that time.)
Just outside Cobourg, east of Toronto, Ms. St-Georges noticed a van following her during the late-afternoon rush of traffic. For 20 minutes the man in the vehicle tried to get her to pull over by rubbing bumpers, cutting her off and, at one point, even opening the van’s door as both vehicles were in motion.
Terrified, Ms. St-Georges pulled over to the centre median with the desperate hope someone would realize she was in trouble.
Northumberland OPP say the man, who they confirm was wanted in connection to an earlier slaying, jumped out of his own vehicle without putting it into park and, as his vehicle rolled unmanned down the highway, entered Ms. St-George’s van.
“Our volunteer started to scream for help,” said Mr. Muller. “She got out of the van at this moment and then the soldier arrived. When the man saw the soldier … he got right into the van and left.”
Mr. Lima allegedly fled the scene, leaving the soldier with Ms. St-Georges along a stretch of Hwy. 401 named the Highway of Heroes after its connection to the repatriation of soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
Mr. Muller said the soldier’s name was Sean Chard, a corporal with the Royal Canadian Dragoons, the regiment of Trooper Diab who was killed by a roadside bomb in early March. Cpl. Chard was on his way to attend the Toronto funeral when he saw the carjacking and jumped into action.
He called police and stayed with Ms. St-Georges until officers were able to reach them, Mr. Muller said. A description of the van, specifically the Angel decal along its side, led to Mr. Lima’s arrest and the recovery of the van later that afternoon.
Mr. Muller said he wanted to specifically thank Cpl. Chard for his “heroic help and very kind support.”
“At that moment there was a soldier, a true hero. If I could just be in front of him one day — he was a true hero,” he said.
Mr. Muller described Ms. St-George as “a very kind person, very simple.” He said the long-time volunteer had never been married and never had any children, but had several brothers and sisters near her childhood home of St. Agathe, Que.
In an eerie twist, Ms. St-Georges was bringing several boxes of books to the Mullers to take with them on an 80-city speaking tour, at the time the man hijacked the van. The topic of the book: helping people understand their inner distress before it leads to violence and crime.
“The van was full of about 100 books that would have helped him,” Mr. Muller said. “There were thousands of vehicles on the highway, why did he pick this van? It is a mystery…. Without knowing him, I believe his soul was asking for help somehow."
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2009/03/19/carjacking-victim-salutes-hwy-401-hero.aspx
Carjacking victim salutes Hwy. 401 'hero'
Posted: March 19, 2009, 10:04 PM by Barry Hertz
By Matthew Coutts, National Post
The lives of a woman volunteering with a religious group and a veteran soldier heading to the funeral of a fallen comrade connected briefly this week, when he came to the woman’s aid after a man allegedly fleeing the scene of a murder carjacked her van.
Nicole St-Georges, 65, was driving along the Highway of Heroes in a GMC Savana passenger van when a man driving a minivan tried to force her vehicle — with a large decal of an angel on the door — to the side on the afternoon of March 16.
Ms. St-Georges, a 15-year volunteer with Universe/City Mikael Publishing, a non-profit publisher of religious and motivational material, was on her way to join authors Kaya and Christiane Muller on a cross-Canada speaking tour.
Still too shaken from the incident to speak publicly, Ms. St-Georges allowed Kaya Muller to tell the story of her run-in with a suspected murderer, and the help she received from a soldier in full military uniform, on his way to attend the funeral of Trooper Marc Diab.
“We are so happy she is all right. It was a tragedy, we didn’t know what direction it would take when everything happened,” said Mr. Muller yesterday.
“He just followed her on [Highway] 401 and he chased her.… He tried to stop the van, he was on the left side and then the right side. She didn’t know what was going on.”
The man is believed to be 28-year-old Justin Lima, who is now charged with murdering his mother inside her Brampton home earlier that afternoon.
Police allege that Mr. Lima had tried to swap his father’s minivan for a stolen vehicle to evade capture as he drove west. (It is unclear why he was heading back in the direction of Brampton at that time.)
Just outside Cobourg, east of Toronto, Ms. St-Georges noticed a van following her during the late-afternoon rush of traffic. For 20 minutes the man in the vehicle tried to get her to pull over by rubbing bumpers, cutting her off and, at one point, even opening the van’s door as both vehicles were in motion.
Terrified, Ms. St-Georges pulled over to the centre median with the desperate hope someone would realize she was in trouble.
Northumberland OPP say the man, who they confirm was wanted in connection to an earlier slaying, jumped out of his own vehicle without putting it into park and, as his vehicle rolled unmanned down the highway, entered Ms. St-George’s van.
“Our volunteer started to scream for help,” said Mr. Muller. “She got out of the van at this moment and then the soldier arrived. When the man saw the soldier … he got right into the van and left.”
Mr. Lima allegedly fled the scene, leaving the soldier with Ms. St-Georges along a stretch of Hwy. 401 named the Highway of Heroes after its connection to the repatriation of soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
Mr. Muller said the soldier’s name was Sean Chard, a corporal with the Royal Canadian Dragoons, the regiment of Trooper Diab who was killed by a roadside bomb in early March. Cpl. Chard was on his way to attend the Toronto funeral when he saw the carjacking and jumped into action.
He called police and stayed with Ms. St-Georges until officers were able to reach them, Mr. Muller said. A description of the van, specifically the Angel decal along its side, led to Mr. Lima’s arrest and the recovery of the van later that afternoon.
Mr. Muller said he wanted to specifically thank Cpl. Chard for his “heroic help and very kind support.”
“At that moment there was a soldier, a true hero. If I could just be in front of him one day — he was a true hero,” he said.
Mr. Muller described Ms. St-George as “a very kind person, very simple.” He said the long-time volunteer had never been married and never had any children, but had several brothers and sisters near her childhood home of St. Agathe, Que.
In an eerie twist, Ms. St-Georges was bringing several boxes of books to the Mullers to take with them on an 80-city speaking tour, at the time the man hijacked the van. The topic of the book: helping people understand their inner distress before it leads to violence and crime.
“The van was full of about 100 books that would have helped him,” Mr. Muller said. “There were thousands of vehicles on the highway, why did he pick this van? It is a mystery…. Without knowing him, I believe his soul was asking for help somehow."
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2009/03/19/carjacking-victim-salutes-hwy-401-hero.aspx
