Jessica Nikish and her boyfriend were walking their dogs that night. One minute they were crossing the street, the next they ran for their lives.
“We heard a vehicle rev,” Nikish testified Friday at the trial of Abdulahi Sharif. “The vehicle came and hit that barricade and the police officer. And he flew 10 feet in the air.”
Sharif, 32, faces five counts of attempted murder, one count of aggravated assault, four counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm and one count of dangerous driving in connection with events that happened on Sept. 30, 2017,
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Expressionless, Sharif stared straight ahead in the prisoner’s box while Nikish described what she saw that Saturday night near Commonwealth Stadium.
At first Nikish and her boyfriend, Jacob Prince, thought the crash was an accident.
“I came over to the officer and I remember bending down,” Prince testified. “I told him that it’s going to be OK.”
Prince heard a car door open and close and thought the driver was coming to check on the officer. Then he saw the man pull a knife.
Nikish told the jury, “Then all of a sudden my boyfriend yells, ‘He has a knife. Run, run, run!'”
They both ran.
When Prince took the stand, Crown prosecutor Shelley Bykewich asked: “What made you run?”
“I felt that we were all in danger,” he answered. “So I ran for my life.”
Nikish told court she crouched beside a truck, and turned back to watch the officer.
“We saw a guy wrestling with the officer,” she said. “Stabbing him as hard as he could go. Just stabbing him.”
Prince testified he saw the officer get stabbed three times. Bykewich asked both witnesses to describe the attacker’s demeanour at the time.
“He was calm,” Prince said. “But he looked driven.”
His girlfriend agreed.
“Very calm,” Nikish said. “This was a plan.”
Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Paul Belzil told Nikish she wasn’t allowed to speculate about that.
The police officer who was stabbed that night, Const. Michael Chernyk, eventually got the upper hand and the attacker ran off.
“It looked like he was scared,” Prince said. “He was running with knees high and elbows up. He was sprinting.”
The jury has been told Sharif was the registered owner of the car that hit Chernyk.
Hours later, Sharif was pulled from an overturned U-Haul in downtown Edmonton after he allegedly mowed down four pedestrians.
The trial continues next week.