Burnaby RCMP are issuing another plea as they try to identify the suspect in a hit-and-run that claimed the life of a father, husband, and well-known port employee.
“It’s a senseless crime where a man has lost his life,” Cpl. Mike Kalanj told Global News.
Fifty-nine-year-old Mark Peters was riding his Harley Davidson to work around 9:30 p.m. on Sat. June 19, when police say he was rear-ended by a vehicle and thrown off his motorcycle at the intersection of Canada Way and Imperial Street.
The driver of a 2002 Black Honda Accord fled the scene but left a big clue behind – the car’s bumper and licence plate. The suspect vehicle was later recovered.
Peters, who was identified by his colleagues as a valued member of the Grain Workers Union Local 333, was pronounced dead in hospital.
“Not only did someone not get to go home or to work as it were that night,” said Kalanj, “a lot of loved ones are missing this victim right now.”
On a GoFundMe page created in Peters’ memory, friends state that “Mark would have been the first to help out anyone else who had faced a tragedy such as this.”
“It’s a small community – as big as we are, we’re all connected and it’s a tough go,” an emotional Kalanj told Global News.
Kalanj’s own father, who passed away eight years ago, was a past Vice-President of the Grain Workers Union Local 333 and had worked with Peters at North Vancouver’s Richardson Terminal.
“They feel like they’ve all lost a brother,” he said.
RCMP are still seeking dashcam video and asking anyone who lives within a kilometre of the collision scene to check their home surveillance.
“You might not think there’s something on there, but it could be a piece of evidence that gets us where we need to go quicker,” said Kalanj.
Meantime, RCMP say it’s not too late for the suspect driver to do the right thing.
“Just come forward and tell us what happened,” pleaded Kalanj.
“It’d be a whole lot easier.”