Accused road-rage driver not formally charged yet; release not unusual: police

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This article was published 23/12/2020 (1938 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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It’s the question on the lips of everyone who has seen Kiana Jobo’s shocking road-rage cellphone video:

Who is the man relentlessly pursuing and repeatedly ramming her car as she tried desperately to escape?

City police confirm they arrested a 57-year-old suspect after last Thursday’s frightening incident and released him on a promise to appear in court.

His identity, however, has not been disclosed to the public. A charge of dangerous driving has yet to be sworn in court, Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Jay Murray told the Free Press in an email Wednesday.

“We legally cannot name someone until they have been formally charged,” Murray said. “A promise to appear does not constitute a formal charge, and it is something that happens at an administrative level as the document is processed. However, if someone is detained in custody, it’s much more immediate and often happens by the time we issue a media release.”

Under section 493.1 of the Criminal Code of Canada, police are required to give primary consideration to releasing an accused “at the earliest reasonable opportunity” and “on the least onerous conditions that are appropriate in the circumstances.”

If a suspect is arrested without warrant, as in this case, they are to be released as soon as practicable if police intend to compel their appearance in court by way of summons or appearance notice, or if the accused provides an undertaking, or promise, to police.

“In this situation (and many others), the Winnipeg Police Service used Criminal Code principles to establish that the individual needed to be released on a promise to appear,” Murray wrote.

“This isn’t a decision that is made lightly, and it is not unusual — every day we are obligated by legal guidelines to release people in a similar manner, sometimes even for firearm-related and/or violent offences.”

Before agreeing to release an accused on a promise to appear, police are required to take several factors into consideration, Murray wrote, including: does the person have prior or pending charges for not appearing in court? Are there any outstanding warrants for their arrest? Do they have previous convictions for escaping custody or not complying with court orders?

“This is a very standard release mechanism,” he wrote. “Not only for the Winnipeg Police Service, but many other police agencies across Canada as well.”

Manitoba Public Insurance, meanwhile, confirmed it is conducting its own investigation into the incident, which damaged other vehicles in addition to Jobo’s.

“Not only will criminal charges possibly be on (the accused driver), they also could be paying back thousands and thousands of dollars to MPI on behalf of its customers,” said MPI media co-ordinator Brian Smiley.

Jobo, a 25-year-old business administration student, had just finished writing her last exam of the semester and was out running errands with her father last Thursday, including making funeral arrangements for her grandparents who had died from COVID-19, when she made a left turn from Sargent Avenue onto Milt Stegall Drive, angering the male driver of a white Chevrolet pickup truck.

“He was going the opposite direction in the median lane, so I was turning left and I guess I was in his lane,” Jobo told the Free Press earlier this week.

The pickup driver began aggressively following Jobo, at which point she told her father to pull out his phone and record the man’s licence plate number.

The man proceeded to ram Jobo’s car three times in rapid succession on Milt Stegall Drive and again on Portage Avenue near Polo Park, causing her to spin out and crash into the median.

Jobo estimates the chase lasted 10 minutes before she made her way to the nearby RCMP’s Portage Avenue headquarters desperately looking for help.

“It’s not just a person having road rage — it was a vicious, relentless act of violence,” Jobo said.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca