WATCH: Thirty-eight-year-old Giles Roberts was critically injured in a hit and run early Sunday morning after leaving a Halloween party. Friends and police are urging the driver to come forward.
The Quadra Island community is offering support to a father of two who was critically injured in a hit-and-run on the island early Sunday morning.
Quadra Island RCMP said the hit-and-run happened near the 1100 block of Heriot Bay Road between 3:30 a.m. and 4:20 a.m on Oct. 28. Thirty-eight-year-old Giles Roberts, a father of two, was struck on the remote road then found by a passing motorist at 4:20 am.
He was transported to hospital in Campbell River before being airlifted to a Victoria General Hospital.
Roberts had been celebrating with a large group of Quadra Islanders at an annual Halloween party at the Heriot Bay Inn. It moved to a private cabin after that before he and his girlfriend decided to walk home.
“He had been walking with a friend of his who he had left at their residence and continued on his own,” stated Corporal Sean Bulford of the Quadra Island RCMP.
He had dressed as a vampire for the party so he was wearing dark clothing and there are no streetlights in the area. Police say he could have been lying on Heriot Bay Road for some time and could have been hit anytime between 3:30 a.m. and 4:20 a.m. but there was no evidence at the scene as to what kind of vehicle hit him.
“At this point, we don’t have anything to go on in regards to the exact model or colour, size so we’re just asking the public to keep their eyes open for anything suspicious, any kind of damage they see to the front end of a vehicle,” added Bulford.
Police say the person responsible should do the right thing and come forward.
“I understand that person is not just scared but terrified but they need to do the right thing and turn themselves in,” said Bev Wall, who says Roberts is like a son to her.
“Every car goes by you’re looking. Every car, every car that goes by it doesn’t matter what kind of car or what direction it’s going in, I look,” said Keri Smith who is a friend of Roberts and runs the local gas station and convenience store.
She and many others in this tight knit island community are angry that someone they know could have been the person who left Roberts lying on the road.
“It’s a bag of mixed emotions, someone left him, someone in my community left him,” said Smith. “I want to think that it’s someone who doesn’t live here.”
“Like all of us think that maybe someone we all know hit someone we all know,” added Wall.
Roberts who works at Walcan Seafood remains in critical condition in the Intensive Care Unit in Victoria General Hospital and has a long road to recovery ahead of him.
Donations can be made to the Giles Roberts Trust Fund through the Coastal Community Credit Union on Quadra Island and Campbell River, citing account number 798562.
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Quadra Island RCMP at 250-285-3631. If you wish to remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
CHEK News
