Saskatoon Muslim community mourns teen killed in high-speed crash

Friends are raising money for the grieving family of a 16-year-old Saskatoon boy who was killed in a high-speed crash that injured two other teens on Sunday morning.

Shahryar Amir was a passenger in the vehicle that crashed into a pole and flipped over on a stretch of Taylor Street East in the early morning hours Sunday.

Amir was declared dead at the scene by police at around 6 a.m.

As a Saskatoon Police Service collision analyst continues to investigate the crash, the condition of one of the 15-year-old survivors is being watched closely.

Saskatoon police say the vehicle was being driven by a 15-year-old who didn’t have a Class 5 drivers license. He sustained non life-threatening injuries.

The other passenger, also a 15-year-old, is in hospital with life-threatening injuries.

“Impairment is not believed to be a factor of this collision, however members of the major crimes have assumed carriage of the criminal component of this investigation,” Saskatoon police spokesperson Joshua Grella told CTV News.

A resident living in apartments on Taylor Street who heard the crash made the initial call on Sunday morning.

Shahryar Amir was a passenger in the vehicle that crashed into a pole and flipped over on a stretch of Taylor Street East. (Chad Hills / CTV News)

“As a police service our officers certainly feels the loss that our community feels when a young person dies in this nature,” Grella said.

Amir’s family friend Mahnoor Naeem has started a Go Fund Me page to help the family with funeral and other expenses as they deal with the tragedy.

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“He was really kind and generous. It was so tragic to hear when he passed away,” Naeem said.

Amir went to Evan Hardy Collegiate and was in Grade 10, according to Naeem who says her family left Pakistan at the same time as Amir’s in 2012. They were hoping for a better life.

Naeem says this loss is affecting the whole Muslim community. She’s received numerous messages of support since starting the fundraiser late Sunday. Initially she set the goal at $10,000, but it has already hit almost $16,000.

According to Naeem, it is customary for the body of a deceased loved one to be taken back to Pakistan for burial, but in this case the family will have funeral services in Saskatoon.

“When you’re so far from home, there’s no family here to support them so I think the least we can do is start a page and help in that aspect,” she said.

As the major crimes unit continues to investigate exactly what happened in the fatal collision, they’re not ruling out charges which could range from criminal negligence to dangerous operation of a vehicle causing death, according to Grella.