Kelowna man faces more charges after driving "rampage" landed him in jail
Credit to Author: Lora Grindlay| Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2020 15:03:24 +0000
A Kelowna man who promised a judge he’d live a lawful life is accused of leading police on a high-speed chase hours after being released from jail.
“I’m sorry for what I did, and you’re not going to see me back in here,” John Michael Aronson told the judge on Sept. 23, 2019.
But Aronson was back in Kelowna court on Monday to face charges stemming from a police chase that led to a multi-vehicle accident later on Sept. 23.
Aronson is charged with flight from police, dangerous operation of a vehicle, driving while disqualified, and breach of probation. Sitting in a wheelchair, Aronson appeared by video link from jail during the brief proceedings.
The multiple charges came after police tried to stop a driver on the W.R. Bennett bridge. The driver ignored police, turned off at Boucherie Road, and smashed into three other vehicles, RCMP said at the time.
The driver of the vehicle police were chasing was trapped in his car and was taken to Kelowna General Hospital. The other drivers involved in the collision were not seriously injured.
Earlier that day, Aronson had been freed after being sentenced to time he’d already served in custody for what Judge Andrew Tam called a month-long dangerous driving “rampage”.
In January 2019, Aronson was shot twice by police in the parking lot of Orchard Park mall. Already on the run from police at that point, Aronson had stolen an idling car outside the CIBC branch and tried to continue his getaway.
Police, fearing he was about to run them over, shot Aronson in the stomach and leg.
Aronson was then mauled by two police dogs. He spent six days in a medically induced coma, was in hospital for almost a month, underwent several operations, and now walks with a cane.
In court in September, Aronson was full of remorse.
“Almost dying was an eye-opening experience,” he told Tam. “I’m sorry for what I did, and you’re not going to see me back in here.”
Aronson, a carpenter by trade who has three young children, said at the sentencing hearing that he hoped to turn around a life marked by a long criminal history and heavy drug use.
Throughout much of January 2019, the judge said, Aronson was on a “rampage” through Kelowna streets, ignoring an earlier driving prohibition, and exceeding posted speed limits by as much as 50 km/h and running red lights.
On Jan. 22, 2019, Aronson used bear spray on the window of a driver who had angered him on the William R. Bennett Bridge.