The family of a man who was killed in a hit-and-run on Vancouver Island earlier this month says it is struggling with the fact the man accused of being behind the wheel is charged with first-degree murder.
Rod Kelly, 54, was struck and killed on Feb. 8 as he rode his bicycle on the Comox Valley Parkway near Courtenay.
Kelly was discovered in a ditch by passersby who spotted a bright light shining in the darkness.
“Why is there a flashlight in the ditch? So they stopped. They were the ones that found Rodney,” said Kelly’s mother, Laurie Brong.
“And he spoke. He said, ‘I’m OK, I’m OK.’ And then, of course, he passed out trying to get up. It was just horrible.”
RCMP arrested a suspect two days after the deadly crash in a remote area near Cumberland.
Steven Squires, 45, has been charged with first-degree murder and failing to stop after an accident causing death.
Brong said she’s still grappling with the fact that Kelly was left in a ditch to die.
“That’s what hurts,” she told Global News through tears. “That really angers me.”
Kelly’s family was in a Vancouver Island courtroom Thursday morning in anticipation of Squires’ first public appearance.
The hearing was ultimately cancelled and has been rescheduled for March 7.
“I was upset,” Kelly’s cousin Mary Lou Harris said.
The test for first-degree murder requires prosecutors to prove a suspect killed a person with planning and deliberation. They do not need to prove the suspect knew the victim or targeted them personally.
It remains unclear what evidence Mounties presented to Crown counsel to secure a murder charge so quickly.
“I was surprised at that too,” Brong said. “And I’m thinking like, ‘Holy crap, you just seen somebody on a bike riding, so you just mowed him over, or did you know my son?'”
Earlier this week investigators made another plea for witnesses, video, or anyone who spoke with Kelly on the evening of Feb. 8.
Kelly struggled with addiction, but loved ones described the former logger and tug boat operator as a good dad and a man who would help anyone.
“I just wish he was here,” Kelly’s stepfather Bing Brong said.
“I really miss him. He’s a really good friend and my son.”
— with files from Rumina Daya