The fiancée of a senior York Regional Police officer killed in a car crash told mourners Thursday why she loved him so much.
“We had so many adventures. We had so much fun,” Debra Neal said at the funeral of Supt. Mark Grant. “We were in love and we enjoyed each other every day.”
They were together on Oct. 27, returning from a policing conference in Chicago. They were just a few minutes from Grant’s home in the village of Mount Albert when a Chevrolet pickup truck T-boned their Chevrolet Impala.
The crash left Neal seriously injured and killed Grant. The 76-year-old driver of the pickup sustained minor injuries.
There’s no word yet from Durham Regional Police as to whether the pickup’s driver will be facing any charges in connection with the crash.
While Neal talked of the man she wanted to marry, York Police Chief Eric Jolliffe praised the officer.
“He was a consummate professional, charismatic, who worked hard. He was intelligent, dedicated and his amazing ability to get the job done led to his consistent success,” he said of Grant, who served 32 years with York police.
He was considered to be on-duty at the time of his death, but because he was working in an administrative role he didn’t receive a full police funeral with a procession.
The service, located at the Richmond Green Sports Centre in Richmond Hill, began at 1 p.m. and lasted for almost two hours. It was not open to the general public.
Almost 1,000 family, friends and colleagues attended the service. Emergency personnel from across York Region were also there.
Grant, 54, had been a road supervisor, worked drugs and vice, and had been serving as superintendent of information services at the time of his death.
He was involved with Cops for Cancer, curled, cooked, loved to tell stories and was notorious for using Q-tips to clean his beloved motorcycle, the service heard.
His uncle, Gary Grant, said that Mark had a brother Larry, “probably the closest pair of brothers I’ve ever seen.”
Insp. Kevin Torrie, a close friend of Grant’s, said: “Fate has taken you suddenly, my friend. Once again you can go out and leave, but rest easy, we’ve got your back.”
Four months earlier and only a few kilometres from where Grant died, York police lost another officer.
Const. Garrett Styles had conducted a traffic stop on June 28 at Highway 48 and Herald Road, just to the west of the Grant scene, when the driver fled. The van dragged Styles along and pinned him when it rolled shortly after 5 a.m.
Styles would die of his injuries in hospital about an hour later.
The teenage driver in that case is facing a first-degree murder charge. His lawyer said the boy has lost the use of his limbs as a result of injuries sustained in the crash.
With a report from CTV Toronto’s Tamara Cherry