By Mike Renzella
The Haldimand Press
HAGERSVILLE—Local resident Steve Slack did not know Alex Dalton personally, but felt a strong desire to help his family after learning of Dalton’s tragic death in a hit and run incident in Hagersville on April 23, 2021.
“I never met the boy, nor his family. I live up the street from them,” explained Slack. “Years back, friends of mine … Randy and Beth Harris lived in the same house that the Daltons live in right now.”
He explained that the Harris’ son, William Harris, along with Gwen Martin and Adam Banes, was involved in a similar hit and run about seven years ago.
“Will and Gwen were both killed, and Adam was quite seriously hurt. Now, we have another boy living in that same house who meets the same fate, ran over from behind on a motorcycle…. Will was on a dirt bike, and Gwen and Adam were on a quad, stopped at a stop sign,” explained Slack of the similarities, noting that Dalton had taken over the room that Harris called his own.
“It hit kind of close for me,” said Slack. “I wanted to do something. Knowing that they hadn’t caught anybody yet and knowing that Crime Stoppers will give you up to $2,000, well big deal…. So, I saw a friend of his had started a GoFundMe to refurbish a pickup truck of Alex’s. When I first saw it, it was at $18,000. I thought, why not do the same and try and get a reward.”
Slack’s goal is to raise $50,000 to entice anyone who may have witnessed the incident to come forward with information.
Dalton’s mother, Andrea King, personally donated $1,000 to the fundraiser, which had raised more than $9,500 and had been shared over 1,300 times as of publication.
“Please help our community bring justice to my son,” said King on the GoFundMe page. “This boy, this incredible young man with big dreams and high hopes and an incredible love of life, deserves justice. His family, as we grapple with the devastating void that has shattered our world, deserves justice. His friends, his work crew, his hunting buddies, his cousins, his grandmas, his aunties, his uncles, his other families who loved my boy like their own, reeling at the news that he’s been taken from us and his adventures are through, deserve justice.”
According to the GoFundMe page, the Chevrolet Tahoe that struck and killed Dalton on April 23 was a stolen vehicle. The Haldimand Press attempted to verify this claim through the OPP but did not receive a response to the inquiry prior to publication.
