Daughters' appeal after pensioner killed in hit-and-run: Give Daddy justice

Alicia Khan believes that seconds before her 78-year-old father was killed in an accident on October 18, he was mistaken for a bicycle-riding bandit who had robbed a Carapichaima resident.

Khan and her sister Salisha are calling for swift justice for their father Azad Khan’s death.

A 47-long clip from CCTV footage of the incident shows Khan riding his bicycle along the road in Butler Village, Carapichaima, around 7.26 pm on October 18.

Within seconds, a vehicle can be heard approaching as Khan rides across the street. He had a headlight on his bicycle that flashed as the car struck him, causing his body and the bicycle to fly into the air.

A senior police officer from the Central Division told Newsday that a man from the community surrendered to police on the same night. He is said to be assisting with the investigation.

Two of Khan’s three daughters spoke to Newsday at his home on Sunday.

Tents and chairs were in the yard as the family held the first night of wake on Saturday.

Alicia said Khan would cycle everywhere, even to the shop for an onion if he needed it.

He was also looking forward to celebrating his 80th birthday and would have been 79 on December 14.

She said they are certain he had many more years left to live and his untimely death by hit and run demands justice.

Khan was an A-class, heavy-equipment, auto-diesel mechanic, the family said, and had been working since he was 14.

Alicia said, “Only since the incident took place, I got to understand there is a bandit in the area on a bicycle robbing people. That is what happened just before my father got knocked down.”

She believes Friday night’s robbery victim may have mistaken her father for the bandit.

“When he (driver) did realise it was not the bandit, it was probably too late for him to stop,” she said.

She said there was a video where the alleged driver could be seen coming out of his home with a cutlass, starting his car and speeding off.

Newsday was unable to verify this but did see the CCTV footage of the accident.

Although the driver lives nearby, Alicia said neither she nor other Butler Village residents knew him and only knew that he was renting a nearby apartment.

She alleged that the driver told someone he hit “the wrong man” minutes after the accident and that statement was captured in a video.

Alicia said she was really heartbroken because although her father was “old”, he had a lot of life left in him.

“He has no complications for his age. My father was always outgoing, he didn’t stay in one place at all.”

She added that police had camera footage from the incident but she was uncertain if they had footage from the alleged driver’s home.

The family needs some kind of justice, she said.

She added that even if someone was robbed, they were not supposed to seek vengeance.

Salisha cried as she recalled her paternal grandfather died at 92 and remembered Azad saying he would have died at that same age.

She recalled crying and fainting at the scene, watching her father’s body in a drain covered by a sheet.

The family said Khan was supposed to have been buried already as he was a Muslim. Once investigations are concluded, the family hopes to have the ceremony soon.

Alicia described her father as a humble man who spoke to everyone.

She lived two minutes from the family’s home and said he would often ride across to her home to visit.

“He would ride the road ten times for the day if he had to. He would stop and talk to everybody, going up the road and coming back down,” she said.

On the night of the hit and run, several residents told her they had just spoken to him before it occurred.

She said the nation’s executive was not doing enough to address the crime situation.

“Because if a man on a bicycle could be doing crime in the area and he is not caught…from what I am told, it has been going on for months now.

“It is a good few people in the area he has robbed,” she said.

“I know I would have lost my dad one day, but not in a bloody way like that,” Alicia said.

Neighbourhood responds to crime

A neighbour who identified himself only as Randy said Khan was good and healthy.

He said motorists should not be “driving hard” on back roads.

Randy said the incident was unjust to Khan and his family.

“It is sad to know that the man had to go like that and he was not a sickly man to say that he bedridden or anything. Healthy man, going up by the shop, riding down by the sea, riding down the road,” Randy said.

Speaking to crime, generally, in TT, Randy said it was equally sad that TT had become this way and it seemed as if the authorities were doing very little to curb it.

“Long ago, you could go anywhere and chill out and hang out on the corner, now you have to fear for your own gate, you have to keep it locked,” he added.

Alicia said villagers were discussing starting a neighbourhood watch to catch the bicycle thief.