The 31-year-old motorcyclist charged in connection with a hit-and-run that left a young boy critically injured has been released on bail.
The suspect, identified in court as Darren Robert Dawson, was arrested on Monday, one day after the four-year-old was hit near Victoria Park Avenue and Adair Road.
According to Toronto police, Raidul Chowdhury was walking with family around 1:30 p.m. when he ended up on the roadway.
The motorcyclist struck the child and stopped briefly, allowing a female passenger riding on the back to get off and flee the area on foot, before driving away from the scene.
The child was rushed to Sick Kids Hospital with severe injuries. He remains in the intensive care unit in a coma.
“His brain is damaged. He has a broken elbow, broken shoulder, broken leg,” his father, Ruhul Chowdhury, told CP24. “But the doctors are not worried about those things right now. They’re working about his brain. His brain is really damaged.”
Security camera images were released of the suspected driver and passenger on Sunday. By Monday early evening, police announced an arrest in the case.
The suspect has been charged with leaving the scene of an accident causing bodily harm, driving a motor vehicle on an improper licence, and operation of a motor vehicle without insurance.
Toronto police refused to release the suspect’s name after his arrest. A police source told CTV News Toronto that the decision was part of an agreement that saw Dawson surrender to police at his Markham home.
The source also said that Dawson did not want his name in the news fearing for his own safety because of his alleged affiliations to the Hell's Angels.
A judge granted Dawson bail, set at $25,000, on Tuesday afternoon. The suspect’s two sureties, who include his mother, posted the bail and he was released.
As part of the conditions of his release, Dawson must not contact the victim’s family and is not permitted to drive a vehicle. He has been ordered to stay in Ontario and surrender his passport.
According to a CTV News Toronto reporter inside the Scarborough courtroom during the proceedings, the suspect was “crouching down and hiding” while in the prisoner’s box, possibly in an attempt to hide from court artists.
Dawson is due back in court on July 15 at 2 p.m.
The female passenger is now “known to police,” investigators said, but has not been arrested or charged at this time.
Police credit tips received through Crime Stoppers for the quick arrest. However, they are still urging anyone with further information about the crash to come forward.
With files from CTV News Toronto’s Austin Delaney
