No courtroom apology for road-rage killing

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This article was published 04/10/2023 (745 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Three years after her son was killed during a violent road-rage dispute, Wendy McMillan arrived at a Winnipeg court Wednesday hoping to hear an apology from Rahim Ahmadzai.

She left without hearing one.

Given an opportunity to address court, Ahmadzai remained silent before King’s Bench Justice Candace Grammond sentenced him to 6 ½ years in prison for the July 2020 stabbing death of 43-year-old Ryan Kelly Legary.

“An apology goes so far,” McMillan said minutes later outside court. “It would have made a big difference if, when he took responsibility three years into it, he said: ‘I’m sorry,’ just acknowledging someone’s pain, what you have caused that family.”

Ahmdzai, 22, pleaded guilty to manslaughter mid-trial in March, admitting he stabbed Legary to death after a driving dispute and argument that escalated quickly in a parking lot shared by a Tim Hortons restaurant and Petro-Canada gas bar at Fermor Avenue and Lagimodiere Boulevard.

Legary was behind the wheel of his girlfriend’s Chevrolet Equinox at about 5:20 p.m., attempting to turn off Lagimodiere Boulevard and into the Tim Hortons parking lot at the same time Ahmadzai was in the passenger seat of a Nissan Cube registered to his sister, which was stopped behind a long line of cars in the opposing lane of traffic.

As Legary made a move to cross the opposite lane of traffic, the Cube pulled forward, blocking Legary from making the turn. Both men gestured and yelled profanities at each other, with Ahmadzai briefly exiting his vehicle before Legary squeezed through a hole in the traffic and made his way to the parking lot.

Ahmadzai’s vehicle followed Legary and parked directly beside him.

Security video showed Legary getting out of his vehicle and punching Ahmadzai in the face as he remained sitting in the passenger seat of the car.

Legary backed away and was continuing to gesture at Ahmadzai and his driver when Ahmadzai exited the Nissan seconds later with a utility knife and stabbed Legary once in the chest.

Legary walked backwards to the gas bar, where he collapsed next to one of the pumps.

Ahmadzai and his companion immediately drove away.

While Legary struck Ahmadzai first, “a clear act of provocation,” Ahmadzai could have safely retreated instead of responding with lethal force, Grammond said.

“Certainly, that assault by Mr. Legary did not justify the stabbing, but I must take his actions into account,” Grammond said.

“This was a quick, intense event and I accept that Mr. Ahmadzai had little time to reflect on it as it was unfolding,” she said. “Having said that, there is no question both parties had multiple opportunities to disengage with the other.”

Grammond said she accepted Ahmadzai did not intend to kill Legary, but “he should have known that stabbing someone in the chest could kill him.”

Amidst her pain, McMillan expressed compassion for Ahmadzai.

“He was just a kid, 18 years old,” she said. “He has to pay, but I don’t want his life destroyed. I feel bad for his mother, his family, what they have gone through. Nobody deserves this.

“It’s been a long, long time and I’ve just been on hold waiting for this day. Now, I have to start healing.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca