GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta. -- A charge of second-degree murder has been laid after a British Columbia man was fatally injured while attempting to stop someone from interfering with his vehicle outside an northwestern Alberta business.
RCMP say Nikkolas Steenhuisen, a 34-year-old Abbotsford resident who had been working in Edmonton, was visiting relatives in Grande Prairie when he came out of a hardware store last Saturday to find a strange man sitting in his truck.
The husband and father of three small children confronted the intruder and made a bid to stop him when he tried to flee in another pickup.
Police say Steenhuisen was on the truck's running board and became pinned when it collided with a parked vehicle.
Steenhuisen was taken to the local hospital, but he died while being airlifted to Edmonton.
Michael Ginter, a 30-year-old Grande Prairie resident, was arrested on Monday and will appear in court this Friday.
Ginter is also charged with one count of possession of property obtained by crime exceeding $5,000.
Mounties said their investigation moved quickly when a burned-out pickup truck was discovered in a rural area outside Grande Prairie hours after the parking lot confrontation.
They determined it was the same vehicle involved in the incident.
