A Montreal cab driver is in custody after two bystanders video taped the man running over a pedestrian.
Guercy Edmond, 47, has been charged with aggravated assault and leaving the scene of an accident.
The two-minute-long video posted on YouTube shows Benoit Kapelli and others kicking Edmond’s cab repeatedly while the car drives slowly around the street. At one point the cab reverses and accelerates down the street, running over Kapelli.
The YouTube video below has been viewed more than 298,000 times and contains very violent footage that may not be suitable for work.
The following video, which is also extremely graphic, shows a close-up of Kapelli getting run over and the aftermath.
Kapelli suffered critical injuries to his head and was in stable condition Monday, reported the Calgary Herald.
According to Edmond’s lawyer Yves Vaillancourt, the incident was in self-defense.
“‘For him, he was under attack,” Vaillancourt told the Calgary Herald. “I haven’t seen the video but it seems to have circulated around. He is nervous. He didn’t understand why he (was arrested by the police). He feels like he was a victim, too.”
According to a blog post from the Crew Duluth, the man who shot the first YouTube video, the altercation started with the “slamming of a door, and ended with somebody fighting for his life.”
“I am no expert in human relations, and I try not to sum up somebody’s character by judging them by the way they look, however, looking at these guys [in the street], none of them appeared as if they were ready for a friendly lesson on how to be nice to people,” Duluth wrote. “The cabbie could have held his tongue when the door got slammed, then shouted ‘Glass Bowl’ at them as he drove off, while the passengers might have given them the jolly middle finger and yelled something abusive back… and that would have been it. … I stick up for the cabbie, and I stick up for the passengers. What we are really needing here is a change of consciousness.”
While there were a number of potential witnesses, it will be interesting to see if and how the YouTube footage is presented in court.
Photo via YouTube