The man arrested for allegedly ramming an Aldergrove RCMP building, with a woman hanging out the door of his car, appeared in court Thursday, Nov. 2.
The accused, Kultar Gill, a former MMA fighter who went by “Black Mamba”, is now charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm, aggravated assault, and two counts of failure to stop.
During the Thursday hearing, a small courtroom at Surrey Provincial Court was crammed with friends and family of the accused. Two rows of seating were full and others stood near the doors.
Gill appeared by video, as did lawyers for the Crown and his defense lawyer, Brian Coleman.
The suspect remains in custody. Coleman has asked for him to be released, but he is expected to stay in pre-trial custody until after a day-long bail hearing is held on Wednesday, Nov. 15.
All the charges relate to an incident on the Langley-Abbotsford border in Aldergrove along Fraser Highway on the evening of Oct. 29.
Video surveillance footage of the area, circulating online, shows a vehicle turning into the parking lot of the Aldergrove Community Police Office just before 8:30 p.m., with it’s driver’s side door open and a woman’s legs trailing out the door.
The car bumped over a curb and flattened a road sign, then slammed into the front of the building, caving in part of the wall and cracking a window.
Another video, apparently taken earlier, showed the same vehicle smashing into the rear of another car.
Langley RCMP said that when officers arrived at the scene of the crash, they found several bystanders trying to assist the woman from the car. Officers gave first aid until an ambulance could take her to hospital, said Cpl. Craig van Herk of the Langley RCMP.
The driver had left the scene of the final crash on foot.
RCMP officers arrested Gill a short distance away from the scene. Persons charged with a criminal offence are considered not guilty until the charges are proven in court.
Gill is a former mixed martial artist fighter who has owned and operated the Mamba Martial Arts Academy in Abbotsford since 2011.
He has promoted the Mamba Fight Night events, which have occurred in Abbotsford, Kamloops, Surrey, Richmond and Burnaby over the past decade, including a Sept. 29 Mamba Fight League event at the Langley Events Centre.
Gill is also a corrections officer at the Matsqui Institution.
A significant stretch of Fraser Highway, from 276th Street to 268th Street, was closed through the evening and into the following day while the Langley RCMP Criminal Collision Investigation Team (CCIT), Integrated Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Service (ICARS) and the Integrated Forensic Identification Section (IFIS) investigated.
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