There are more questions and anger about B.C.’s so-called catch-and-release justice system over the case of an alleged repeat offender.
“Knowing that he was released right after my incident, with no fault of the police, obviously, well, this higher-up needs to change their laws and regulations, but I’m just extremely disappointed, honestly, at this point,” Asha Makwana told Global News on Thursday.
Makwana was a victim of a carjacking in Victoria on Monday, which ended when the suspect crashed into two vehicles.
Seth Packer was charged with robbery and theft of a motor vehicle.
It was his second arrest in two days on charges of trying to steal a vehicle.
After making a court appearance, Packer was released, despite Victoria police asking that he be held in custody.
Just a few hours after that release, Packer was arrested again, accused of stealing a wallet from a home and allegedly trying to steal yet another car.
“I’m not doing the greatest, Makwana said.
“It’s been really hard, to even get back into the swing of things. Honestly, I feel like my life has been completely torn apart, and I don’t know where to even begin.
“I just want it to be over. I feel like that’s the best way to describe it. It’s like a nightmare that I can’t wake up from.”
She said she is too scared to go back downtown as she’s concerned it’s going to happen again.
“How many other criminals are getting loose all the time, like being caught and released every day?” Makwana said.
“How many people and how many people doing worse crimes? Like, maybe my crime wasn’t as bad as murder or anything like that, but it’s still extremely traumatizing. And what about all those people that have committed even worse crimes that are getting released on a daily basis, like something just needs to change, and I’m just so disappointed in the system.”
For now, Packer is being held in custody until his next court appearance.
“Nobody wants to see persons so disruptive to community members,” Attorney General Niki Sharma said.
“And I’m sure that the community, Victoria, is frustrated with this incident.”
Sharma said the government is always watching for changes that need to be made.
“We made some pretty key interventions into the system that are showing results,” she said. “The repeat violent offender initiative is really circling around the most repeat violent offenders in our system. And that’s showing results in terms of if that person is causing harm, they’re detained.”
Victoria Chief Const. Del Manak told Global News that all three incidents were serious offences but Packer is not known to police.
“After the second incident, when he pushed a driver out of the way, took her Tesla, crashed it in two different locations, driving through other jurisdictions around Victoria, abandoned the car in the second crash, then tried to carjack another vehicle to get away after bystanders held him down, these are really serious issues and concerns around public safety,” he said.
“They create a lot of fear in the community.”
Manak said when Packer appeared in court, the Victoria police asked for him to be kept in custody but he was released.
“This is three incidents in three consecutive days within VicPD’s jurisdiction, which really starts to highlight the repeat nature of this and we’re extremely fortunate that this individual did not cause more harm and that there weren’t serious injuries,” he added.
In a statement to Global News the B.C. Prosecution Service said “the court released Mr. Packer on very strict bail conditions, including house arrest. The accused was only allowed to be outside of his residence between noon and 2 p.m. or for very specific reasons, such as attending court.”
Packer’s next court appearance is scheduled for May 14 to fix a date for a bail hearing.
Makwana said that for her and her family, what happened has prompted a need for a personal change.
“I wasn’t aware of the catch-and-release program at all before this incident happened,” she said.
“I didn’t really ever feel the need to pay attention to any of this stuff that was going on. But now knowing this honestly, my next move is to move outside of Canada. I’ve been thinking about it for a while now, and that between this and the terrible health-care system, and I know the school systems are really getting impacted right now as well, my next goal is to just get out of here as soon as I can.”
Makwana said the whole system needs to change.
“I do not feel safe living in Canada anymore. I don’t trust anybody living here anymore. I don’t trust the system at all anymore. So it’s unfortunate really.”