Search warrant sheds more light on fatal Kamloops hit and run

At this point no suspect or suspect vehicle has been located yet, but police did have their eyes on two different vehicles suspected to have been involved. Days after McDermott’s death, police released surveillance footage of a silver car — a Dodge Neon — that was in the area of the collision around the time it happened.

After seizing a vehicle matching the description, the police were able to rule out that a make and model of that kind was involved in the hit and run.

Later that same week, police released surveillance footage of a blue car that was also in the area, and believed that could have been the suspect vehicle. However, police later announced they no longer believed the blue car to be involved in the collision, but maintained the driver could have been a key witness they’d like to speak to.

Two witnesses arrived on the scene after McDermott was struck — one driving a white hatchback and another driving a Kami Cab. Both drivers gave statements to police which detailed how they saw McDermott lying in the road, injured, before pulling over to call 911.

Neither of the witnesses saw the crash occur.

Police responded and collected evidence from the scene, which included some pieces of what was suspected to be clips commonly used to hold the undercarriage of a vehicle in place.

Later that morning, officers accessed surveillance footage from several different buildings downtown, with one view from BCLC showing “the shadow of a figure” walking down a pedestrian ramp from Seymour Street West, toward Seymour Street near the BCLC building. The officer examining the footage saw the shadow disappear from view, before observing a vehicle driving eastbound on Seymour Street with its lights on.

According to the document, the officer then observed in the footage the vehicle making contact with an apparent object in the road, causing the front end of the vehicle to lift up and then drop as if driving over something large in size. This could have been the point of impact, although it hasn’t been confirmed by police.

There’s no description in the search warrant of what vehicle was seen in this specific footage, but it continued eastbound along Seymour Street West before the two witnesses arrived on scene.

In all of the different angles and points of view from surveillance cameras downtown, there was no footage that could make out a licence plate on the vehicles.

The original suspect vehicle — the silver Dodge Neon — was the subject of the search warrant and police did end up seizing and examing a similar vehicle, but it was determined to not be the vehicle involved in the collision. Police are no longer looking for a Dodge Neon in connection to the incident.

Kamloops RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Jodi Shelkie tells CFJC Today that based on the examination of the vehicle officers had searched, combined with new information obtained after the search warrant was executed, officers were able to eliminate that vehicle as being connected.

“We are still working toward identifying the suspect vehicle but there are no updates to provide at this time.”

by Ashley Legassic

Search warrant sheds more light on fatal Kamloops hit and run

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