‘He was my best friend’: Grieving Kelowna mother warns against vigilante justice

“I love talking about Tristan, one of my favourite things to talk about.”

That was one of the first sentences that came out of Tristan Seeger’s mom’s mouth when asked about her son.

This past weekend has been a rollercoaster of emotions for the Seeger family.

From saying goodbye to their 15-year-old son to seeing the full force of his friends and community coming together for a vigil, a lot has happened since Saturday evening.

"It's been awful and I don't think my brain has really got it through my head," said Paule Seeger, Tristan's mother.

"But the pain we've been going through, it's been a lesson because we're not going through it alone and I know other people are also in pain, other people are mourning this loss too."

On Oct. 21, Tristan was run over by a vehicle at the intersection of Houghton and Franklyn roads.

That incident is believed to be connected to an incident that took place not long before of a group of teenagers allegedly bear spraying multiple people.

Tristan was transported to KGH, where healthcare workers attempted to stabilize him.

“The incredible, unbelievable staff at KGH who literally worked tirelessly for 16 hours to exhaust all options they could to keep my son alive,” said Seeger.

“They couldn't even stabilize him, his injuries were that catastrophic, but they would not give up."

When news broke that Tristan had passed away, his friends jumped into action, immediately planning a vigil to be held at Ben Lee Park on Sunday evening.

Seeger’s youngest son told her about the vigil and the family decided to go with no questions asked because they needed the support.

“While I knew he was loved … I was speechless," added Seeger.

When asked about her son, Seeger told KelownaNow that he loved skateboarding, animals, his brother and his family – and shoes.

Tristan had an expensive taste for sneakers and since he shared the same foot size as his mom, sometimes he would snag one of her sneakers.

“All my expensive sneakers started disappearing and my son's sneaker collection grew significantly,” explained Seeger.

“He’d come through to say goodbye or something and I'm like, What, whose shoes are those? And he'd be like 'mine', really, they look a lot like mine.”

For now, the plan for Tristan’s family is to stay close, keeping an eye on his brother and his friends, taking life day by day.

“My son's not going to come back, right, I'm not going to get my son back,” added Seeger.

“So I have to decide how I'm going to move forward without him and if I can move forward with peace and kindness, then, you know, he would be happy with that.”

On Monday afternoon police made an update about the situation, adding that the death was now being investigated as a homicide and an arrest had not been made yet.

When asked how she felt about an arrest not being made yet, Seeger was not worried.

“I support what the police are doing," she said.

“I would rather them take their time and I know that they are working hard… we don't need vigilante justice right now.”