North Vancouver RCMP suspect that a sports-car rampage that injured two women Monday night was fuelled by drugs.
Sixteen-year-old Hanna Peinhof was leaving a restaurant on Esplanade with her boyfriend when a man driving a blue Ford Mustang began talking to her. She told CTV News that he asked her if she wanted to buy crack cocaine; when she refused, he drove right into her.
"He just straight put the accelerator down and ripped up the street," she said. "I rolled over onto the hood and onto the windshield and off the side."
Her boyfriend, 19-year-old Kyle Fraser, says he watched in disbelief as Peinhof was struck by the car.
"I went into paralyzing shock. I didn't know what to do," he said.
Luckily, Peinhof escaped with only scrapes and bruises on her legs and hips.
Police say the driver fled the scene, but proceeded to approach a group of four women walking on Chesterfield Avenue nearby. The driver allegedly told them to get in the car, but when they refused, he hit one woman and pinned her against a pole.
Adam Green was standing nearby and saw the aftermath.
"She was lying on side of road. I could see her ankle was swollen and all of her legs were beat up and she was unconscious at the time," he said.
Although the second woman's injuries were more serious, police say they are not life-threatening.
Mounties say the driver took off yet again, and hit another vehicle on Lonsdale Avenue.
"The driver of the vehicle that had been struck followed the Mustang, and at one point the Mustang stopped and started ramming into the vehicle that was following him," Sgt. Peter DeVries said.
The driver then allegedly continued into an alley, where he approached another woman who was out walking and ordered her to get inside his vehicle. When she refused, police say the driver threatened her and took off.
He was arrested a few blocks away, and investigators called in a drug expert.
"I don't want to speculate about what type of drug is involved," DeVries said. "We have experienced cases in the past where people have taken drugs and conducted themselves in very, very dangerous, really crazy ways. This certainly fits that profile."
Delta resident Michael Lee Meller, 44, has been charged with dangerous driving causing bodily harm, impaired driving causing bodily harm, hit-and-run and uttering threats.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Maria Weisgarber