Maple Batalia’s mother speaks

It is something many people may have a hard time comprehending.

A mother whose daughter was shot to death as she left school expressing empathy for the accused and his family.

The mother of Maple Batalia is speaking today at a forum on teens and dating abuse.

She sat down with Global’s Grace Ke to talk about her daughter, her grief and the young man who’s charged with murder.

Maple Batalia’s mother Sarbjit says she struggled with a flood of mixed emotions the day RCMP announced they had made two arrests related to her daughter’s death.

“It’s hard and painful because I think about his life and his parents, and it’s really hard to me and it’s very painful,” says Sarbjit.

Nineteen-year-old Maple Batalia was gunned down in September of 2011 as she was walking to her car at SFU’s Surrey campus.

Maple’s ex-boyfriend Gurjinder “Gary” Dhaliwal has been charged with first degree murder and 22-year-old Gursimar Bedi has been charged with manslaughter and accessory after the fact.

The family doesn’t know Bedi, but Maple and Gary knew one another back in high school and their families were very close.

Eventually Maple and Gary started dating.

At some point, Maple broke it off.

But with charges laid and the case now before the courts, Maple’s mother won’t say why.

“I’m very close to his mom and dad. She is my best friend,” says Sarbjit. “I think she has more pain than me.”

Sarbjit says she has nothing but respect for Gary’s parents and that they are a good family and even more – she loved Gary like a son.

She said Gary was a good boy and remembers the young man who would walk her daughter home at night.

To this day, when you ask her about the man accused of killing her daughter, she refuses to utter and bad word about him or his family.