Nelson Arruda, 41, mourned by family and friends
It was Father’s Day Sunday, and Nelson Arruda had just visited Assumption Catholic Cemetery in Mississauga to spend some time with his daughter, Kayla Arruda, who died shortly after birth several years ago and is entombed at the Tomken Road facility.
Seconds after leaving the cemetery on his motorcycle, family members say, the 41-year-old Brampton man was killed in a crash with a Peel Regional Police cruiser.
“I don’t think he and his wife ever got over losing their daughter,” said Karl Marques, Arruda’s cousin through marriage. “That’s what makes this even sadder. Such a sad, sad, set of circumstances.”
Family members and friends said their final goodbyes to Arruda Friday (June 24) during a funeral at Our Lady of Fatima Roman Catholic Church in Brampton.
Arruda, a construction worker in Toronto, was described as “an extremely funny guy…the funniest guy you could ever meet.”
The province’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU), which investigates incidents involving police and civilians that result in serious injury or death to determine whether any officers should be charged, is investigating the incident which occurred just before 7 p.m. June 19 on Tomken Road near Derry Road East.
The SIU says the sports motorcycle was heading northbound on Tomken when it collided with a police cruiser around Derry Road East.
Investigators want to speak to anyone who saw the white police cruiser traveling eastbound along Derry Road in the half hour before the collision, and/or Arruda’s white sport motorcycle which was traveling northbound along Tomken Road in the half hour before the collision.
The police cruiser at the scene had damage to the passenger’s side but the officer inside wasn’t hurt. SIU spokesperson Jason Gennaro told reporters whether the officer was responding to a call at the time of the crash “is part of the ongoing investigation.”
The SIU is asking anyone who may have witnessed the incident to call them at 1-800-787-8529.
Source: The Mississauga News