Ex-attorney general suspect in hit-and-run

TORONTO, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- Toronto police were questioning the province of Ontario's former attorney general Tuesday in connection with a fatal hit-and-run accident involving a cyclist.

An unidentified male cyclist in his 20s was struck by a car around 9:45 p.m. in the central downtown area, witnesses told the Toronto Star.

The black Saab convertible with its roof down grazed the cyclist, who hung onto the car as the driver yelled at him to let go, witnesses told police. The driver then crossed into the oncoming lane and began brushing trees and poles to dislodge the cyclist, the Star said.

"He was driving on the wrong side of the street and up on the curb trying to knock him off the car for about 100 (yards)," road crew worker Ryan Brazeau told the newspaper.

The bicyclist was knocked off and then run over by the car's rear wheels before it sped away, witnesses said. The man later died of severe head injuries, the report said.

The Saab was located at the nearby Park Hyatt hotel, and police arrested Michael Bryant for questioning.

Bryant was Ontario's top lawyer in the Liberal government of Premier Dalton McGuinty during his first four-year term between 2003 and 2007.