Beverly Acorn chokes back tears as she talks about her brother, a man who left Prince Edward Island for Ontario at the age of 20 and died in Toronto just after midnight on Sunday, 30 years later.
He was the victim of an incident Toronto police are investigating as a hit-and-run in Scarborough.
On Tuesday morning, officers announced an arrest in that case.
Police said 24-year-old Adam Hosseini had been charged with failing to stop at the scene of an accident causing death and a Highway Traffic Act offence.
Global News has learned that the man accused in his death was named the most valuable player on the Durham College basketball team during the past season.
He was also honoured as the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association East Division player of the year in March.
Durham College refused to comment on the matter, citing privacy obligations.
“A relief came when we heard that the person had been arrested,” Beverly Acorn said.
She said that that relief was mired by grief at her brother’s passing and the knowledge of how he died.
“People need to know the harm that it does for people to think their loved one is left to die alone on a road,” she said.
Toronto police said a pedestrian — her brother Darin Acorn — was struck on Sunday just after midnight in the Markham Road and Sheppard Avenue East area.
Investigators said a driver in a Mazda was travelling westbound on Sheppard Avenue East when the car struck a man crossing the road. The driver did not remain at the scene and continued westbound, police said.
Darin was taken to hospital where he later died.
His sister said he was one of five children and had been born on Christmas Day. “He was the best gift we’d ever gotten,” she said.
He worked as a maintenance man at a business in Scarborough.
Beverly said she is still struggling to come to terms with the death and does not want the criminal investigation around her brother’s passing to “steal from” her grief.
“He was important to us, he was dearly, dearly loved and valued,” she said of her brother.
Beverly plans to come to Toronto to bring her brother home to Prince Edward Island.
Hosseini appeared via video link from 14 division in a Finch Avenue courtroom on Tuesday. He was released on $500 bail with a condition he not drive. He will be back in court on June 19.
None of the charges have been proven in court.
— with files from Global News’ Gabby Rodrigues