BRAMPTON – For more than a decade, Joginder Singh would walk to the Sikh temple down the street from his home every morning before dawn. On Monday, the 80-year-old man took what would be his last walk to pray.
At around 4 a.m., a dark-coloured vehicle drove down Timberlane Dr., a residential street in Brampton, and hit Singh, leaving him lying on the street as it fled, Peel police said.
A passerby called police at around 4:20 a.m. and they arrived to cover Singh’s body as they investigated the scene.
Singh’s turban was thrown off his head and fell beside the curb, his shoes were found a few feet from either side of him, and his walking cane remained close by.
Singh’s grandson, Karanvir Dhaliwal, awoke Monday morning to the news that his grandfather was lying dead on the street, just a few houses down.
“I couldn’t believe it until I saw it,” Dhaliwal said. “Even when I saw it, I didn’t believe it — it just hit me a while ago.”
Dhaliwal, a 19-year-old engineering student at York University, said his grandfather always told him to have faith in God. He said Singh went to the temple every morning — “it’s routine.”
“He was one of the people who cared about what you thought,” Dhaliwal said. “He just wanted to be my friend, that’s how he was.”
Dhaliwal said his family, especially his grandmother, is trying to cope with the news, and are helping each other deal with it.
“Everyone’s shocked in the family. I just feel as the days go by, it’s going to get harder,” he said. “It’s something that’s part of life.”
And for the driver who killed his grandfather, Dhaliwal has this to say: “It’s easier for the families if you turn yourselves in. You know what you did at the end of the day, and it’ll just make your life easier.”
Neighbours who lived near the collision, near Garden Gate Circle, said they didn’t hear it happen — there was no screaming or screeching of tires.
Singh was heading to the Gurdwara Nanaksar Satsang on Timberlane Dr., which used to be quieter but now has cars speeding down it like it’s a big-city street, neighbours said.
“Everybody wants to go to the temple early, so people are walking. Old people, they go pray there and they walk around, crossing the road when no cars come,” neighbour Surinder Babra said.
“But some cars are very fast and they can’t care less. If somebody drives at speed limit, then this wouldn’t have happened like this.”
Malbinder Singh, president of the temple, said there will likely be a prayer ceremony for Singh after his funeral when the family is ready and asks for it.
He remembered Singh as a “generous man” who kept to himself. “He comes to the temple and pray, and then go back home.”
Police said they believe the vehicle is missing a chunk of its bumper, and its windshield may be damaged. They have also acquired surveillance footage from the temple and hope it will provide more information on the vehicle.
“We would like to appeal to anyone who may have seen anything, or who have seen the vehicle, to contact us,” Const. Thomas Ruttan said. “We would especially like to make an appeal to this person to seek some legal representation and turn themselves in.”
