VANCOUVER — Silas O'Brien, a committed Christian, attended one last church service before he was killed yesterday, the victim of a bizarre hit-and-run incident as he was about to leave on a Hawaiian vacation.
“He was here and his family, his parents were here and brothers and sisters and so on,” said Pastor Ed Byskal of the Cloverdale Bibleway church in Surrey, recalling the Wednesday ceremony.
“Because he was leaving on vacation this morning, they were able to say farewell, but they just didn't realize the depth of that farewell,” said Mr. Byskal, speaking on behalf of the grieving family.
Mr. O'Brien, a 21-year-old Abbotsford resident, died after he was run down in Aldergrove.
Police say a Chevy truck was run off the road by a Ford F-250. When the driver and two passengers of the Chevy got out to assess the situation, witnesses say the Ford turned around and then charged at the trio, hitting and killing Silas O'Brien who died on the scene. (Carmine Marinelli for the Globe and Mail)
As police explained it, a pickup truck had forced Mr. O'Brien's pickup off the road as he and two friends – identified in news reports as Sam Dooley and Luke Stevens – headed for Vancouver International Airport to catch a flight to Maui.
With his truck in a ditch, the three young men got out. A driver of a car stopped to check on them.
They said they were okay, and the driver went on his way. It was then, after 2 a.m., that the first vehicle returned to the scene, heading straight for them. Mr. O'Brien's friends managed to scramble out of the way, but not Mr. O'Brien, who was hit and killed.
“It just makes you shake your head,” Corporal Dale Carr of the RCMP Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said after recounting the facts of the case.
“The media has been calling it road rage all day long. I don't know because I don't know what led up to it. Is it road rage or rage of some sort that ended up in death? We really don't know.”
Police have interviewed the two survivors, and the driver of the car that stopped to check on them came forward for an interview. All were helpful, Cpl. Carr said.
Police are trying to track down the suspect vehicle – a pickup truck modified to carry a snowmobile. Cpl. Carr noted that the owner of the vehicle has an interest in coming forward even if he or she was not behind the wheel: Under B.C. law, the owner could be held liable for what happened.
“We have many ways to track down vehicles in the province of B.C.,” he said.
As the police investigation proceeded, friends and family of Mr. O'Brien were in mourning.
Mr. Byskal watched Mr. O'Brien, one of seven children, grow up, and now counselled his family as well as friends and parishioners at the church. He said he did not have a chance to speak to Mr. O'Brien during that service this week, attended by about 600 worshippers.
“I'm sorry I didn't have a chat with Silas last night even though we do frequently,” he said. “Silas was a quiet young man, not withdrawn, but he was quiet. He was someone who is a deep thinker, very respectful. Any parents would be proud to have him as their son.”
Mr. O'Brien, who was single and had no children, worked in the family contracting business. Mr. Byskal said family members were not showing any anger over the tragedy.
“I haven't seen any display of anger at all. They're rather silent about that aspect because it's something the normal human mind can't quite grasp – what is going on in another person's mind to want to do such a thing because it seems to be something that was intentionally done,” he said.
“If we didn't have confidence and faith that there was God who was ultimately in charge of these things, a person would be at a total loss for an explanation of this type of random crime.”
64
