Taxi driver charged after teenager ‘ left there to die’
The teenage girl run over by a taxi early Wednesday morning and “left there to die” had persevered through many trials in her short life.
Family have identified the victim of the fatal hit- and- run as 16- yearold Tyla Chipaway.
Police have charged a cab driver after Tyla was hit while lying in the middle of 16th Avenue N. E. around 3: 25 a. m.
“The young girl that died on the street — I don’t want that as a legacy for her, or people to remember her like that,” said Doreen Delorme, Tyla’s aunt.
“She was a kind- hearted young lady, a really good human being ... She had aspirations and dreams. She had a really hard life growing up ... but she managed to do so much in her short time here with all of us.” Tyla’s life was never easy. Born in Edmonton to parents who struggled with addiction, Tyla and her eight siblings lived all over the province while growing up.
When she was young, Tyla was in a car accident that killed both of her grandparents, and Tyla’s father committed suicide in 2011.
Tyla missed her father deeply, and after his death, the young woman would run away, something her 14- year- old sister Sonya Chipaway said was a way for Tyla to deal with her pain.
“It was too hard for her. She really missed my dad,” Sonya said.
“She did her best to cover up her pain and put a smile on her face everyday, but she missed him a lot.”
But Tyla didn’t let her difficult childhood stand in the way. She was funny and outgoing, and she loved her large family, and attending cultural events like powwows.
“She never forgot anybody’s birthdays,” said Delorme. “She would make birthday cards for everybody, and she was really humorous.”
Delorme said a handmade card that Tyla recently gave a relative reads: “You’re not getting old, you were old last year, too.”
The teenager moved to Calgary to be closer to her mom, who is paralyzed. She was most recently living at a city youth shelter.
Like many 16- year- olds, Tyla wanted to get a job, and she had
She’s a young, 16- year- old girl, she wasn’t doing anything wrong. She was run over and she was left there to die. It’s as simple as that.
dreams of moving into a place of her own.
Cousin Wesley Chipaway described Tyla as friendly and kind, and said the family is devastated by her death.
“For someone to run over her and not even care to go back, that’s cold,” he said.
Police say Tyla was lying in the middle of the road in the 500 block of 16th Avenue N. E. when she was fatally struck by a taxi.
The taxi then took off, said Acting Insp. Paul Stacey with the Calgary Police Service traffic section.
“She’s a young, 16- year- old girl, she wasn’t doing anything wrong,” Stacey said. “She was run over and she was left there to die. It’s as simple as that.”
It’s not clear why Tyla was lying in the middle of the road, and there was little evidence at the scene. Police were able to track down the driver using CCTV footage from surrounding businesses, and the taxi company was also co- operative in the investigation, Stacey added.
“Why she was lying down on the road way, I couldn’t say,” he said. “But she was and she was alive just prior to that. The cab running her over caused the injuries to her which ultimately caused her death.”
“The evidence we were able to obtain after that point, that convinced us that the cab driver absolutely knew that he had hit somebody, and that led us to the charge of the hit and run causing death,” Stacey added.
Stacey said he doesn’t know whether Tyla would have survived if the driver had stayed at the scene, but noted it’s the responsibility of motorists to stop if they think they’ve hit anyone or anything.
There is no evidence that alcohol was a factor on the part of the driver, and the medical examiner will conduct a full toxicology report on the victim.
Stanislaw Maguder, 70, of Calgary, has been charged with hitandrun causing death.