Impaired driver pleads guilty in Burnaby hit-and-run that killed cyclist
A driver pleaded guilty this week to his role in a fatal hit-and-run crash on Burnaby Mountain in 2019.
Sumeet Mangat entered the plea Tuesday to impaired operation of conveyance causing death and failure to stop after an accident resulting in death.
Mangat, who was 24 when he was charged earlier this year, will be appearing in court in December for sentencing.
The charges were in connection to the death of Charles Masala, a 53-year-old man who was struck by an SUV in June 2019 as he cycled up Burnaby Mountain. The scene was not far from the Simon Fraser University campus.
Police said the driver left the scene, but that a black Jeep Cherokee was located a short time later and the driver was arrested.
Two years after Masala's death, his widow spoke to CTV News about what she called a "slow" court system as she waited for the accused to be tried.
Michele Masala said at the time that she'd actually heard first responders heading to where her husband had been hit, just blocks from his home, but didn't know what was happening.
"If I'd understood the significance of the sirens, I could have been there with him. I didn't find out until three hours later, and then he was gone," she said in July.
The now-single mother said her husband left behind two small children, and that she makes a point of talking about him at home.
She tries to focus on the quirky and fun things about him, and to pass on a message he believed, "that they're allowed to dream big because that was Charles's thing."
Masala was an engineer with two master's degrees. He moved to Canada from Zambia in 1991, and met his wife in what she called a "super cheesy, love-at-first-sight deal" during a church hiking trip.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Decoy bear used to catch man who illegally killed a grizzly, B.C. conservation officers say
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
OPP responds to apparent video of officer supporting anti-Trudeau government protestors
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide falls off a Delta Air Lines plane, forcing pilots to return to JFK in New York
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Loud boom in Hamilton caused by propane tank, police say
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.