Family of victim in Regina hit and run looking for closure

Jamie Gallon was getting ready to start a new chapter of his life — he was starting a new job and was planning to move back to Ontario — but his life was cut short in a crash in Regina Sunday night.

Just before 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, police were called to Ross Avenue, near McDonald Street, where a man was found dead in the street — that man was 42-year-old Gallon.

He and Julie Welsh had been high school sweethearts and have an adult daughter together. Welsh first heard about the crash early Monday morning — her first thought was that it was a mistake.

“How do you know it’s him? Are you sure it was really him? Has anybody identified him? We tried calling the cell phone, like just hoping that maybe it was wrong,” said Welsh.

It turned out to be true.

Since news of his death came out, Welsh said she’s been getting calls from people who knew him to give their condolences.

“He’s just a quiet, kind of understated kind of guy. Really friendly, always smiling, easy to laugh,” she said.

She’s even gotten calls from people who knew him as a kid, including a grade-school teacher who called Gallon a quiet and funny guy.

“To have somebody that far back remember him and that he’d made an impact on, it’s been really nice.” 

Welsh and their daughter live in Ontario, but Gallon had moved to Saskatchewan for work three years ago. He became a grandfather just a few months ago and was planning on moving back to Ontario to be with them.

“He loved his daughter so much. They’re very similar. And he said as much as there seemed to be more work (in Saskatchewan) he just wanted to be back close to her again.”

According to Welsh, Gallon was set to start a new job in Saskatchewan on Monday.

“He called his daughter Sunday night and she said ‘good luck tomorrow.’”

That call was just an hour before he died.

Police believe the crash was a hit and run. A mangled bicycle surrounded by police tape was found just a couple blocks from where Gallon died.

Welsh said Gallon went everywhere on his bicycle.

“That’s been his mode of transportation, everybody knows him as being on that bike — he rode it to work, it’s just what he did.”

No one has been arrested in the crash, and police have turned to surveillance tape from nearby businesses for leads. This means there are still a lot of unanswered questions for Welsh and her daughter. They’re asking anyone who might have information about it to come forward.

“Even if it was an accident, just to have that closure … you want to know details, you want to know, like, did they not see him? It’s just the questions. And you can understand the fear, that someone panics, but they have to know that it was a person, that there’s a family out there that doesn’t know what happened, that doesn’t know that last moment.”

For the time being, Welsh and her daughter are trying to raise money to bring his body back to his hometown of Cambridge, Ont.

“We’ve spent, really, the last two days just frantically trying to figure out what you do to get somebody home — we’ve never been in a situation like this … that’s my daughter’s biggest goal, she just wants him home.”

They’ve started a GoFundMe campaign which, as of Tuesday afternoon, had already raised more than $2,500.