Highway carjacking raises driver procedure concerns

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This article was published 28/09/2021 (1812 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

RCMP are advising the public to trust their instincts when being asked to pull over, after the arrest of a carjacking suspect who reportedly impersonated a police officer.

According to Selkirk RCMP, two women driving an SUV were stopped by a vehicle with red and blue lights on Highway 59, just south of Ocean Drive, in the Rural Municipality of St. Clements at 12:40 a.m. Saturday.

A male suspect approached their vehicle asking for identification and registration, and flashed a firearm when they questioned him. He then forced the women to exit the vehicle, took their cellphones and stole the car.

The man was not wearing a police uniform.

Ryan Demchuk, 40, of Winnipeg, was later arrested after a spike belt was used to stop the stolen vehicle.

Demchuk allegedly assaulted an officer and a guard while at the Selkirk RCMP detachment. He faces charges including personating a police officer, robbery, prohibited firearm possession, and assaulting a police officer.

Hours later, a man and a woman were arrested in Selkirk driving the vehicle reportedly used in the carjacking. Weapons, cocaine, and a set of red and blue lights were recovered, police said.

Sean Demchuk, 38, and Chelsea Flewelling, 28, both of Winnipeg, face possession for the purpose of trafficking and weapons charges.

Impersonating a police officer for the purpose of committing a crime isn’t something often seen, RCMP media relations officer Tara Seel said Tuesday. Incidents such as the one Saturday, however, can create confusion.

“If it’s a marked car, then the concerns aren’t quite the same, if you can see it’s a marked RCMP vehicle,” she said. “The unmarked cars, I can understand the questioning for sure.”

If the situation is concerning enough where a driver feels unsafe, police are required to allow a vehicle to get to a safe destination should the driver be asked to pull over.

“Slow your rate of speed, turn on your hazards, and drive to where you feel is a safe location, whether that be a well-lighted area, a police detachment, that kind of thing,” Seel said.

In May 2017, Sean Demchuk pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic in methamphetamine and cocaine and was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Demchuk was one of 14 people arrested in a 2014 police sting operation targeting high-level drug dealers. He has been described in the past as a Hells Angels associate and member of the Zig Zag Crew street gang.

In February 2018, Ryan Demchuk was sentenced to four years in prison after police executed a search warrant at his Winnipeg apartment and seized a loaded 10-mm handgun. Two years earlier, Demchuk was sentenced to 18 months in jail for possession of a sawed-off rifle.

— with files from Dean Pritchard

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

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