Arrest in high-speed chase brings back 'whole wave of emotions' for Winnipeg family, son says
CBC
More than a decade after his dad was killed, it's still hard for Kamil Andrzejczak not to think about how different his family's life would have been were it not for that fatal crash.
For one thing, the Winnipeg father would have gotten to see his son graduate and become a lawyer. For another, he would have lived to meet his four grandchildren.
"I think about it all the time, because he would have made a great grandfather," said Andrzejczak, who was 23 when his father died.
"He got to see me married for six months before he was killed. And for those whole six months he kept asking, 'When do I get grandkids?'"
The pain of his father's death was reignited this week, after the man convicted of killing 47-year-old Zdzislaw Andrzejczak was charged with offences including dangerous driving following a high-speed chase that began in Winnipeg and ended near Portage la Prairie early Monday.
Mark Douglas Rodgers, 31, was arrested after a pursuit that police said involved a tactical unit vehicle being rammed and ended when the driver lost control of the heavily damaged stolen vehicle and hit the ditch.
Videos of the chase posted to social media showed a truck that appeared to be missing a tire shooting sparks off the road as it was chased by police.
WATCH | Car chase involving truck igniting sparks ends in Portage la Prairie:
At the time of his recent arrest, Rodgers was under a 15-year driving ban stemming from the crash that killed Zdzislaw Andrzejczak in December 2009 in Winnipeg's North End, CBC News has confirmed.
When he was 19, Rodgers was behind the wheel of a Hummer H2 that ran a stop sign before slamming into Andrzejczak's much smaller Subaru. Rodgers was going about 94 km/h in a 50 km/h zone, police said at the time.
Andrzejczak's son said his "heart kind of stopped" when he heard the news this week of the car chase, and he was thankful to learn that no one had been killed. But it hit him even harder when he learned who the accused was.
"I had a difficult time concentrating at work. I've been trying to keep it together, holding back tears. It just brings back that whole wave of emotions," he said.
"Thank God nobody was killed this time. But if you watch the videos and see what happened, you know, it could have ended so differently."
Andrew Piec said he still remembers every detail of the crash that killed his brother-in-law.
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