Authorities have not officially released the names of the victims, but friends have identified one of the victims as 18-year-old Samir Ali. Friends said Ali was driving his friend home from playing soccer Tuesday night when the fatal crash happened at 10th Avenue and 6th Street in Burnaby. “People deserve to know his story,” said Mania Namatifar, who knew Ali through his involvement in youth groups. Ali had just won this year’s Vistara Elevate Award, giving him a full scholarship to UBC to pursue computer science in the fall. He is a refugee from Kenya and arrived in Canada five years ago. Namatifar said Ali lived in Vancouver’s Strathcona neighborhood, volunteering to help those in the Downtown Eastside. “He was a very strong religious boy who believed in the oneness of humanity. He served his community in the Downtown Eastside, regardless of who was in the community,” he said. Ali was the eldest of eight siblings and Namatifar said his mother is in agony. “They didn’t just lose a son. he was their support system, he was their everything,” she said. A GoFundMe campaign has now been started to help the family.
IIO INVESTIGATING POSSIBLE POLICE BELOW
Before the crash, Metro Vancouver police attempted to pull over a white sedan. They did not say where or why they started the traffic stop. They said a few blocks later, the crash happened. A witness described seeing the white sedan speeding and ignoring traffic lights. “Just then, a white car drove past me,” said Samuel Webb. “I’d say he was going 150km/h and I didn’t see him hit his brakes or anything and he just went straight through the light.” He said Ali and his friend were just walking through the intersection at the time. He got out of his vehicle and tried to save the two teenagers. “It was a terrible, horrible thing. I wish I could have done more to get them out of there and make them okay right now because they were gone too soon,” he said. BC’s Office of Independent Investigations, the province’s police watchdog, is now looking into whether a possible police pursuit led to the fatal crash. When Webb was on the scene, he noticed the police arriving quickly. “I would say it was 30 seconds from the time of the crash and from the time I was in the driver’s door. And at that point, there was a police vehicle in the middle of the road, so I’m going to assume it was nearby when it happened,” he said. Anyone with dash cam video of the crash is asked to contact MVTP.
