UPDATE: Former Ontario Attorney General charged in fatal collision
Bryant offers condolences to victim’s family
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UPDATE: Bryant has been charged with criminal negligence causing death and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death. CTV news reports, he left custody Tuesday afternoon, accompanied by his lawyer and made a brief, emotional statement to the media. “I want to extend my deepest condolences to the family of Mr. (Darcy Allen) Sheppard,” he said, choking back tears. “To all those who offered support to my family in the last 12 hours, thank you.” He asked the media to respect his family’s need for distance and privacy for the next few days and asked for understanding for not making further comments on the incident.
(Sept. 1, 2009) Former Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant is in police custody and facing charges after a fatal hit-and-run in downtown Toronto last night, reports the Globe and Mail. Police sources told the paper Bryant will be charged with criminal negligence causing death and dangerous driving causing death after a collision that left Darcy Allan Sheppard, a 33-year-old bike courier dead. Witnesses say the cyclist and a man in a convertible got into an “altercation” in which the cyclist found himself gripping the outside of the car’s driver’s door as it sped away and swerved into the oncoming lane of traffic. The cyclist then struck trees and a grey mailbox like a “human battering ram,” witnesses report. He was pronounced dead at hospital. A car that matched witnesses’ descriptions registered to the former politician was found a short time later in a hotel parking lot, metres from the crash site. Bryant was arrested shortly after. The high profile cabinet minister to Premier Dalton McGuinty left politics earlier this year to take control of Invest Toronto, an organization that promotes business investment in the Toronto area.