The getaway car in this story was driven by the good guy, it left the scene backward, and the man it was rescuing rode along on the outside.
That is what shows up in phone video recorded by Robin Nuber, a driver who rolled into Redwood Park in South Surrey, British Columbia, on the afternoon of Sept. 9 and ended up between a stranger and a man police say was chasing that stranger with a knife.
What police say happened
According to a Surrey Police Service news release, officers were called at about 4:44 p.m. to a reported assault at the park, near 179 Street and 20 Avenue.
Police allege the suspect drove his Jeep Wrangler into the victim’s Ford pickup, then brandished a knife and chased him. The department says a witness in a Tesla “provided safety” to the victim until officers got there. The suspect was arrested without incident, police said.
The release does not say what started the confrontation or whether the two men knew each other.
What the video shows
Video: Robin Nuber via Storyful
Nuber’s footage, which has been distributed by the video agency Storyful, opens on the aftermath in the parking area. A white Ford pickup sits with its front end crushed in beside a dark Jeep. A man in a dark shirt runs across the lot. A man in a green shirt jumps down from the pickup’s bed and goes after him.
The view then switches to the driver’s seat of the Tesla. The man in green is running straight down the park road toward the windshield.
When the camera swings to the passenger side, the front door is open and a man is hanging on at the door frame. He is outside the car, not in it.
Now watch the center screen. The speed readout on the Tesla’s center screen shows 24 km/h, roughly 15 mph. The man in green is still running at the windshield, and he keeps getting smaller. A car can only pull away from someone running toward its front bumper one way. The Tesla was leaving in reverse.
Moments later, the center screen fills with feeds from the car’s cameras. The clip ends back at the park, where at least four police vehicles sit with their emergency lights on.
At the resolution the video was released, it is not possible to make out what the man in green is holding. The knife allegation comes from police.
Whatever went through the driver’s mind, reverse has one practical thing going for it on a two-lane park road: it does not require turning around first, which is a lot to ask with a passenger door open and a man attached to it.
The charges
Surrey Police identified the suspect as Richard Mark James Evoy, 37. He is charged under the Criminal Code with assault with a weapon, assault, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, criminal harassment and uttering threats.
The criminal harassment count stands out among the five. Under Section 264 of the Criminal Code, that offence covers conduct such as repeatedly following or communicating with someone, or watching where they live or work, in a way that makes them reasonably fear for their safety. Police have not said what conduct that charge is based on.
Police said Evoy was remanded into custody and was scheduled to appear in Surrey Provincial Court to set his next court date. The allegations have not been proven in court.
Investigators are asking anyone with information to call Surrey Police Service at 604-599-0502 and cite file number 26-96726.
The car as witness, again
Tesla cameras have helped close a Georgia car-theft case before, and police have gone as far as seizing Teslas to get at their footage. Road confrontations that turn into weapons cases aren’t rare either, from a machete swung at a driver’s window in Leesburg to a hatchet thrown at another car.
This one is different mostly because of who was holding the camera. The person filming was also the one driving the escape, and the proof that it happened backward is sitting on the car’s own touchscreen.
If a stranger ran up and grabbed your passenger door in a moment like this, would you stop, drive, or hit the locks?
Featured image: Tesla Model 3 interior by Tokumeigakarinoaoshima via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). This car is not the one involved in the incident.