Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
October 2020
A community park in the Town of Keswick in southern Ontario is dedicated to the memory of a York Regional Police officer killed in the line of duty back in 2011.
Constable Garrett Styles was on patrol at 5am on the morning of 28 June 2011, when he made a “routine” traffic stop of a van he had spotted driving dangerously, near the intersection of Herald Road and Highway 48.
Behind the wheel of a van was an unlicenced 15 year-old driver. When Constable Styles attempted to get the driver out of the van, the driver suddenly accelerated, dragging Styles with him dragging for over 400 yards. The van crashed and then fell on top of Styles, crushing 32 year-old officer.
Constable Styles managed to call for help on his radio before dying from his injuries. He left behind a wife, Melissa, and the couple’s two young children, Meredith and Nolan.
The driver, known only as S.K., was paralyzed from the neck down and remains confined to a wheelchair, was convicted of first-degree murder at his first trial in 2015. That verdict that was later overturned, but S.K. pled guilty to manslaughter at his re-trial in January 2020. Due to his young age at the time of the offence, his identity remains protected, under the provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
The park was officially dedicated to the memory of Constable Garrett Styles in August 2013, with dignitaries such as Rob Grossi, then-Mayor of the Town of Georgina (of which Keswick is a part of), then-Chief of York Regional Police Eric Jolliffe. members of York Regional Police and the Styles family, which included retired York Regional Police Staff-Sergeant Gary Styles, Garrett’s father.
Photo: Bruce Forsyth. 
Constable Garrett Styles. Family photo.
Sources: https://www.yorkregion.com/news-story/9841181–i-m-sorry-paraplegic-pleads-guilty-to-manslaughter-in-garrett-styles-case, https://www.yorkregion.com/news-story/4049429-georgina-park-dedicated-to-garrett-styles, https://www.yrp.ca/en/about/in-memoriam.asp.
