FILE PHOTO - Police tape marks off the scene of the crash involving a police car and a pickup truck in Langford, B.C., Tuesday, April 5, 2016.
Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito
June 28, 2017 - 12:45 PM
COLWOOD, B.C. - A man who sped his truck through a red light and rammed an RCMP cruiser, killing the officer inside, had been drinking before the crash and was distraught over the recent suicide of a friend, the Crown says.
Crown attorney Tim Stokes told Kenneth Fenton's sentencing hearing Wednesday that the man's truck was going between 76 and 90 kilometres an hour when it entered the intersection and crashed into Const. Sarah Beckett's vehicle in April 2016.
Fenton's truck was being followed by another RCMP vehicle after that officer noticed the tail lights were out, Stokes said.
He described the crash as an explosion of glass and smoke to a full courtroom in Colwood, B.C., as people held tissues and wiped away tears.
Stokes said a witness at the accident scene reported hearing Fenton say "one stupid decision."
Fenton pleaded guilty last month to charges of impaired driving and dangerous driving causing the death of Beckett, a mother of two boys who had recently returned to the West Shore RCMP detachment from maternity leave.
As he read his victim impact statement, Brad Aschenbrenner's hands shook, his voice was low and cracked at times when he told the court about losing the love of his life and the mother of their young sons, Lucas and Emmett.
The hardest thing after his wife's death was telling six-year-old Lucas "mommy wasn't coming home," Aschenbrenner said.
His youngest son was two years old when his mother died and "will have no memory of her at all," he added.
He said the family tries to celebrate Christmas, Halloween and Thanksgiving, but "there's always the undercurrent of sadness and loss."
He has not been able to work, and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety.
Aschenbrenner said he left his family in Idaho to come to Canada to be with Beckett. He is scheduled to get his Canadian citizenship at a ceremony on Friday.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2017