The trial of a man accused of hitting a police officer with his car while the officer attempted to stop him began Wednesday in a Kitchener court.
Jeffrey Woodman, 29, is alleged to have been behind the wheel in September 2013 when Sgt. Eugene Fenton was struck.
Moments before the collision, police say, Woodman was one of three men seen putting cheese products, chocolate milk and lighters down their pants at a grocery store on Weber Street in Kitchener.
Surveillance footage played in court shows Woodman getting into the driver’s seat of the car – and a high-speed chase beginning moments later, upon police arrival.
Testifying in court, Fenton said he ended the chase for “public safety reasons.”
Ten minutes later, he said, he spotted the same vehicle on nearby Sheldon Avenue.
Approaching the vehicle with his weapon drawn, Fenton yelled for it to stop.
It didn’t, and the officer suffered multiple broken bones as a result.
“I thought I was going to die,” he told jurors.
Woodman has pleaded guilty to the theft and to dangerous driving, but claims he was no longer behind the wheel by the time Fenton caught up with the car on Sheldon.
“The issue in this case is who was driving the car when a police officer was hit,” defence lawyer Hal Mattson told CTV News outside court.
Woodman has been in custody ever since his arrest.
