Richard Manuel's white pickup truck is seen in this video screen grab from June 2022. Photo: APTN file
A man found guilty of plowing his truck into a residential school march in southern British Columbia two years ago won’t be going to jail.
Instead, motorist Richard Albert Manual, who was 77 when he struck four people during the event in Mission, will serve his nine-month sentence in the community.
Manual will have to abide by a curfew, said Abbotsford provincial court Judge Edna Ritchie, and will lose his drivers’ licence for 12 months.
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Man who struck residential school marchers in B.C. found guilty
Manuel, who now lives in Nova Scotia, was found guilty in September. Two of the four people he hit required medical attention.
Court heard Manual fled the scene of the crime but turned himself in later. He had pleaded not guilty.
Ritchie considered his age and lack of a criminal record in sentencing.
More than 100 mostly First Nations people were slowly walking on the Lougheed Highway towards the former St. Mary’s Residential School when court was told Manuel drove erratically through the marchers and yelled derogatory comments out his truck window.
