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‘A genuine, honourable man’: Const. John Davidson remembered for calming tense situation

Abbotsford woman recalls when Davidson responded to a frightening road rage incident
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Two years ago, Lisa Harmatuik was followed by an angry motorist for several block in a frightening road rage incident that ended with a minor collision on Highway 11 in Abbotsford.

She locked the door, called the police and waited.

“I was super frazzled,” she said. “And then Const. Davidson showed up.”

The longtime Abbotsford resident recalled her first time meeting John Davidson, the police officer killed in a dramatic shootout on Monday morning. Harmatuik was just one of many people sharing their memories of Davidson on social media.

Davidson defused the tense situation soon after arriving on scene, she said.

“He just came along and smoothed it all over,” she said. While getting statements from Harmatuik and the road rage suspect, Davidson checked to see that her two teenage daughters were OK. He even managed to lighten the situation with some light-hearted comments.

“We had a couple of chuckles,” she said.

It was a brief encounter with the British-born police officer who served 24 years between the two countries but it stuck with Harmatuik.

“He just made such an impression, that I never forgot it,” she said. “He was just such a good man.”

The second time Harmatuik met Davidson was in his capacity as a local citizen, and devoted husband. She recognized him immediately at a ski shop, buying gloves for his wife.

They chatted briefly, and went their separate ways but again, he had made an impression.

“He was just a genuine, honourable man,” she said. “I think we’ve lost a man who dealt with people very fairly. I think his experience allowed him to come across a situation and engage with it without prejudice”