Parking lot memorial honours Regina teen hit, killed by car

About a dozen teenagers gathered around a parking lot memorial between Regina’s South Leisure Centre and Optimist Arena Monday, honouring their friend who was killed just steps away three days earlier.

On Friday night, police issued a news release saying a 15-year-old boy had been hit by a vehicle around 10:40 p.m. He was then rushed to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The teen’s friend, Ben Swallow, wasn’t there that night but believes it was an accident.

“Everyone was just leaving and his bag was on the ground, so he bent over to pick it up, and then he just got run over,” Swallow explained.

“There’s no way the guy that hit him would have seen him. It’s not his fault. It’s just a wrong place, wrong time kind of thing.”

A few years ago, Patrick Golez connected with the teen through football. He said he’ll never forget the day they met.

“He was biking to practice and he just fell off his bike and he was running late,” Golez remembered in between chuckles and tears.

“The summers that we were together, we went biking — biking is one of the biggest things for us; it’s all we did. We’d bike like 20 kilometres a day.”

Golez said his friend will be remembered for his love of motocross, McDonald’s and energy drinks, but most of all for being “a little guy with a big heart” who was “always there to brighten up a room.”