The last thing Kimberly O’Hara remembers is looking for her shoes at the bowling alley. After that, there’s a gap, and then she’s on a bed, under bright lights surrounded by people. They spoke to her, but she didn’t understand what they were saying.
“When people were talking to me, it was like in a different language, not English,” she recalled.
O’Hara testified Friday in the attempted murder trial of Abdulahi Hasan Sharif. Of the five people injured that evening, O’Hara’s injuries were perhaps the most severe.
Sharif is accused of striking Const. Mike Chernyk with his car on Sept. 30, 2017. The Crown alleges Sharif jumped out and took a knife to the injured constable, who fought him off. They allege Sharif then fled police in a U-Haul truck, which struck four pedestrians along Jasper Avenue.
He faces 11 charges including five counts of attempted murder. He has pleaded not guilty.
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O’Hara was out on the town with friends the evening of Sept. 30, 2017 — a Saturday. Her friend Jordan Stewardson was in town from Fort McMurray. Stewardson drove down that day with Levi Wagner for an overnight shopping trip.
The group first went to the Rec Room in south Edmonton, where they bowled, played games and had some food and drinks. They arrived back at the hotel where Stewardson and Wagner were staying, about 10:45 p.m.
At that point, they began a walk to Central Social Hall on Jasper Avenue, but decided to turn back when they spotted a line to get it.
As they went to crossed 107 Street, something grabbed Stewardson’s attention.
“I remember looking towards my left, seeing a vehicle come off the road onto the sidewalk,” she recalled Friday for the jury. “I remember the right headlight coming at me. And then I remember laying on the ground.”
Wagner screamed and dove out of the way. When he looked up, the U-Haul was speeding south on 107 Street. Stewardson was on the ground about 15 feet from where they had been standing. O’Hara had been thrown 35 to 40 feet and was in the road.
O’Hara has no memory of ever being on Jasper Avenue that night. Her memories stop the Rec Room.
She was confined to the ICU for seven to 10 days, and only recalls flashes — crying out in pain, struggling to remove the medical instruments attached to her body, seeing her worried boyfriend at her bedside.
After the ICU, she spent another week in a different room at the University hospital. Two weeks into October 2017, she was transferred to the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital. It was only there that she began to regain her understanding of verbal language — she was still able to understand written words. She had to undergo speech therapy and do work on writing, reading, math and memory.
“Until today, if I don’t pay full attention to someone, I constantly have to ask them to repeat,” O’Hara told court, adding she also suffered a broken leg and a fractured pelvis.
O’Hara was finally discharged from hospital on Nov. 10, 2017.
Stewardson had difficulty breathing after being struck, and needed three stitches on her chin.
“I was in pain,” she said. “Couldn’t walk properly, just shuffled everywhere. Couldn’t breathe. Would get anxiety while I was walking.”
Once she returned to Fort McMurray, she noticed pain in her back, chest and shoulders. An “avid” gym goer and baseball player, she struggled to exercise without pain. She has been undergoing Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy to deal with her PTSD.
“I’m angry,” she told court, when asked how her injuries changed her. “I’m an angry person. Short. I’ve ruined relationships because of it. It’s a constant battle every day. It’s like a vicious circle. I get mad I can’t do things at the gym. Every day I get triggers of what happened.”
Sharif, who is self-represented, did not cross-examine the witnesses. The trial continues.
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2019
