Man pleads guilty in gas-and-dash death

A man who was charged with second-degree murder after an Alberta gas station owner was killed in a gas-and-dash has pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Ki Yun Jo, who was 54, was killed outside his Fas Gas station in Thorsby, about 70 kilometres southwest of Edmonton, on Oct. 6, 2017.

Police have said he tried to stop a driver who sped off in a stolen white cub van without paying for fuel.

A witness saw Jo hanging onto the van's passenger side mirror and, when the vehicle swerved, he was tossed to the ground and run over.

Twenty-nine year old Mitchell Robert Sydlowski of Spruce Grove, Alta., also pleaded guilty in a Wetaskiwin courtroom to failing to remain at the scene of a fatal accident.

Shortly after Jo’s death, the Alberta government moved to bring in legislation requiring drivers to prepay before filling up at gas stations.