Two men with extensive criminal histories have been charged in relation to an incident on Wednesday (Jan. 8) in Abbotsford in which they allegedly sped away from police in a stolen vehicle and crashed into two cars.
Benjamin Aubin, 28, has been charged with six offences – possession of stolen property under $5,000, fleeing from police, dangerous driving, resisting a peace officer and breaching his probation.
Russell Mayhew, 38, faces one charge of resisting a peace officer.
The incident began at about 3 p.m., when officers tried to stop a vehicle – which they believed to be linked to the drug trade – near the Lonzo Shelter on Lonzo Road in east Abbotsford.
Police said the driver crashed through a fence and sped away.
The car then crashed into two civilian vehicles at the intersection of Vedder Way and Marshall Road.
Two occupants of the vehicle ran away but were found and arrested.
The vehicle was confirmed to be stolen, and a search of the car turned up a gun, police said.
According to court records, Aubin currently remains in custody, but Mayhew has been released.
Aubin was previously charged, along with another man, in April 2022 in relation to a street robbery that occurred two months earlier in which they carried a loaded sawed-off rifle.
The outcome of that case cannot be viewed in court records.
Aubin has several prior convictions for offences such as assault causing bodily, resisting a peace officer, assaulting a peace officer, uttering threats, theft, possession of a firearm and breaching his probation and bail conditions.
Mayhew has an even more extensive criminal history and has previously been described by police as “gang-involved.”
Among his more recent arrests was for an incident in December 2022 in which he cut the locks off a parked U-Haul truck and was later caught by police after he got stuck in a snowbank.
There were several Amazon packages in the vehicle that were not addressed to Mayhew, and police assumed he had stolen them off porches in the area.
He later pleaded guilty to resisting arrest a peace officer, driving while disqualified and breaching his conditions. He was sentenced to an additional 45 days in jail (on top of time already served) and one year of probation.
Mayhew was also accused of being involved in a drive-by shooting that occurred in June 2016. Nobody was injured but a vehicle parked in an Abbotsford driveway was found to have bullet holes, and he was one of two men charged.
The outcome of that case cannot be viewed in court records.
In 2012, he was arrested three times in a five-month span for incidents that involved uttering threats, drug possession and breaching his bail conditions.
Mayhew’s long list of prior convictions, dating back to 2005, include drug possession and trafficking, break-and-enter, assault (including several domestic), armed robbery, assault with a weapon, driving while prohibited, dangerous driving, gun possession, resisting a peace officer, and breaching his bail and probation conditions.
