Ride and candlelight vigil for hit-and-run victim

Dozens turn out for candlelight vigil bike ride A bicycle ride and candlelight vigil were held Wednesday evening in support of 10-year-old Tyler Brooks-Szabo. Cristina Howorun reports.

A bicycle ride and candlelight vigil were held Wednesday evening in support of 10-year-old Tyler Brooks-Szabo, who remains in hospital in critical condition after he was hit by a car on Friday.

The Old East Village Riding Group organized the ride to “send all our positive energy and thought to Tyler and his family,” according to the Facebook event page.

Riders met at 5 p.m. at Lorne Avenue Public School, rode to city hall, then circled Victoria Park before heading south on Ridout Street then east on Base Line Road to Children’s Hospital.

The group arrived at Children’s Hospital Zone B entrance around 6:15 p.m. where a candlelight vigil was held with more members of the community already present.

The cyclists then rang their bells in unison to show their support for the injured boy.

Brooks-Szabo’s aunt Laura Henry says she still can’t believe what happened.

“Tyler and his friends were on the sidewalk, they had their helmets on. Tyler is a very happy, go lucky child, he’s safety conscious. He was there for a sleepover, so to get that news and to know that somebody could just drive away, it’s just heart-wrenching.”

Two people have been arrested in connection with the collision on Wexford Avenue and remain in custody charged with a number of offences.

Henry says the family is clinging to hope, “Tyler still remains in critical care, still hooked up to life support. We don’t really have any expectations right now we’re just hoping for the best…Because of the type of brain injury that Tyler has sustained, I just want him to wake up and open his eyes and just breathe on his own and smile.”

She adds that the family is grateful to police, the London Health Sciences Centre and the schools that have shown their support, and hopes their prayers are answered.

“It’s difficult for us to understand how it can happen. We understand that accidents happen every day, but the way it happened and how he was left…the community just really made us feel like Tyler’s one of their own and it could have been any one of our children.”