Guilty plea in COVID protest hit, run By: Dean Pritchard Posted: 5:29 PM CDT Friday, Jun. 2, 2023

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This article was published 02/06/2023 (867 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Headingley man has admitted to plowing his jeep through a crowd of people at a COVID-19 pandemic restrictions demonstration in Winnipeg last year, sending one man to hospital.

David Alexander Zegarac, 43, was set to stand trial in July, but instead pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm and one count of failing to stop at the scene of an accident causing bodily harm.

Zegarac will be sentenced in August, following the completion of a Gladue report examining his personal background as an Indigenous person.

Court heard the Crown is expected to recommend Zegarac be sentenced to 18 months in jail, while defence lawyer Carley Mahoney will recommend he be allowed to serve a conditional sentence in the community.

Approximately 100 protesters and dozens of semis, cars and pickup trucks were occupying a stretch of Broadway at Memorial Boulevard in front of the provincial legislature, Feb. 4, 2022 — the first day of the so-called “freedom convoy” protest — when Zegarac approached the gathering in the westbound lane of traffic around 9:50 p.m., Crown attorney Carrie Ritchot told court, reading from an agreed statement of facts.

“Zegarac had not intended to drive through the area and had in fact been actively avoiding it, but got turned around due to road closures,” Ritchot said.

Zegarac was driving behind a pickup truck when he passed a controlled crosswalk at Memorial Boulevard, changed lanes “and accelerated rapidly without regard for the pedestrians occupying the roadway.”

Zegarac hit one man with the front driver’s side of his vehicle, knocking him to the ground. That man was taken to hospital with injuries to his head and arm and released.

Zegarac made no effort to stop, struck two more protesters, both of whom were uninjured, before hitting a fourth man, who fell and suffered chipped teeth and a bruised jaw.

“After clearing the crowd of people, Zegarac continued to accelerate as he drove west on Broadway, away from the area,” Ritchot said. “He did not stop to offer assistance or identify himself.”

A witness called 911 and followed in his car, as Zegarac proceeded to Portage Avenue at a high rate of speed, running through red lights and weaving in and out of traffic.

When Winnipeg police pulled Zegarac over a short time later in Headingley, the man refused to exit his vehicle and accused officers of being racist.

Officers “proceeded to use force” to arrest Zegarac, and deployed an electric shock device three times before successfully pulling him out of his vehicle, Ritchot said.

En route to police headquarters, Zegarac continued to accuse police of racism and said the convoy was run by and made up of “white supremacists.”

Ritchot said it is agreed Zegarac did not target protesters for attack.

“It is accepted that Zegarac was experiencing mental health issues at the time of the incident and that his actions were an anxiety-induced panic response,” she said.

Convoy protesters occupied Broadway for nearly three weeks before moving under threat of arrest to nearby Memorial Park and ultimately dispersing.

Zegarac was a prominent member of Winnipeg’s punk music scene in the mid-2000s and leader of the band Brat Attack.

In May 2022, police charged Zegarac with publishing an intimate image without consent, after a woman who had been in a past relationship with him alleged he posted naked photos of her online in 2015.

In October, police charged Zegarac with child pornography and luring offences after a second woman alleged he had posted intimate pictures taken when she was 16 or 17 years old without her consent.

Court records show all charges were stayed in March.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca