The two heartbroken 20-year-old twins of slain Oshawa cabbie Michael Ryan say they cannot bear to attend Tuesday’s preliminary hearing for the man accused of killing their father.
And his wife, Linda, said she feels as if she could still easily well up with tears a year after he was shot.
“It doesn’t feel like a year. I could still cry about it very, very easily. But I’ve definitely improved. I couldn’t even talk about the accused before,” said Linda, as she prepares for Oshawa court.
“He was shot in the back. That’s all I know. He died pretty much instantly, which I’m pretty much grateful for. But we were pretty heartbroken here.”
Ryan, 57, was shot last Jan. 21, about two kilometres from his home. Durham Regional Police received reports about a shooting victim with “obvious signs of trauma” near a taxi close to Central Park Blvd. and King St. E. at about 3:20 p.m. that day.
“Our children, Davis and Jacqueline, have decided that they will not attend, they cannot bear it,” Linda said of the preliminary hearing, which is scheduled for four days.
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Daniel Pestill, 31, of no fixed address, was charged with second-degree murder. He is presumed innocent unless a conviction is registered against him.
Linda texted her husband just minutes before the killing.
“At 3:08, I texted him that I had chicken and mashed potatoes ready for him for dinner. I texted him and I didn’t receive a response,” she said Monday.
Ryan was a driver with Blue Line Taxi, providing accessible services with the company for five years.
Linda said “there was no reason for his death, he had only $150 cash on him, and was not being robbed,” wrote Linda. “Michael’s death was senseless, without reason, and extremely sad. It left his family devastated.”
Linda is hoping media coverage of the case will serve to help protect other cabbies.
“It seems that so many cab drivers have been murdered in the past, and not enough attention has been given to these tragedies in the public forum,” she wrote.
“Michael was a “front-line” worker, he primarily transported the elderly and the sick. Often, he was specifically asked to drive a ‘COVID positive’ patient to the hospital, and he never said ‘no.’”
During his 57 years, Ryan ran a construction business, a finance service, and later became a cab driver.
“Michael was a man with a big heart,” his wife wrote. “His death devastated us as a family, and we still cannot believe he is gone.”
Pestill was arrested near the shooting scene last January, according to police, who added that a gun was also seized.
slaurie@postmedia.com
Twitter: @_ScottLaurie
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