It was easy to guess Kianna Moreau’s favourite colour at Rocky Point Park on Friday night.

Family, friends, neighbours, and strangers turned the park into a sea of pink at a candlelight vigil in her memory, releasing dozens of pink balloons and shouting in unison their message for the little girl:

“Kianna, we love you.”

Hundreds gathered at the memorial for Moreau, who died in hospital on April 20 from injuries suffered when she was hit by a car in front of a Port Coquitlam strip mall the previous afternoon. She was six years old.

Mike Ely was present when the accident happened. He tried to save Moreau, but was ultimately unable to help.

Just before the memorial, he met her parents for the first time.

“I was nervous, but the questions they asked were what they needed to ask, and I think they got some peace out of the answers that I gave them,” he said.

“I didn’t tell them anything that was false,” he said. “I made sure everything I told them was exactly what happened, and they were happy to hear it.”

Moreau was struck along with her mother, another woman, and an elderly man. All four were taken to the hospital, but she couldn’t be saved.

Mounties said it appeared the driver of a blue SUV lost control while turning right from Shaughnessy Street onto Lions Way and crashed into a crowd of people.

At the scene, witness Florin Grigore said he felt sick watching the accident unfold.

“When I saw the little girl going into the car, she was just running and caught in between the cars, I felt something in my stomach,” he said.

“My wife just started screaming, ‘Where’s that little girl? Where’s that little girl?’”

The driver stayed at the scene and is cooperating with the investigation. Mounties said the driver was following the ICBC-mandated rules for people with learner’s licences, and that there was a qualified supervisor in the car with her.

On Friday, police told CTV News their investigation into the incident was ongoing and that they had been very busy collecting witness statements.

A GoFundMe page set up to pay for Moreau’s memorial and to support her family had raised nearly $35,000 from more than 260 donors by Saturday afternoon.