Good Samaritan Sets Up Trust Fund for Kids He Saved

OXNARD —  The good Samaritan who saved a Port Hueneme mother and the two children she allegedly tried to drown took his heroism a step further Thursday and set up a trust fund in the children’s name.

Brian Wiggins, the 40-year-old ex-lifeguard who heard a weak call for help from the water and bolted out of bed about 2 a.m. Wednesday to rescue the family, said he wanted to do whatever he could for 9-year-old Sonny Virk and his 6-year-old sister, Harpreet.

They were in the 57-degree water of Channel Islands Harbor with their mother, 39-year-old Narinder Virk, whom investigators allege was trying to kill herself and the children just hours after her husband had left the country.

“I got a feeling these kids will be scarred for life and my wife and I want to help them out,” said Wiggins, a sales representative.

Meanwhile, Harpreet is still under observation at a Northridge hospital and Sonny has been released to social service workers.

Narinder Virk, who was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, is set to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. today.

Investigators declined to release any new information Thursday, although they interviewed Harpreet at the hospital.

Virk’s husband, Santokh, who was flying to his native India when the incident occurred, had not been notified of the events late Thursday, according to Oxnard police Sgt. Lee Wilcox. He said he left messages for Santokh Virk in his native country and is hoping he will call.

At the jail Thursday, Narinder Virk spoke to a Times reporter in broken English about the eight years she has spent in this country with a husband whom she said frequently returned to India without her.

Virk did not tell police why she took her children to the harbor. But a friend who visited Virk Thursday at the jail and spoke to her in Hindi said Virk said she couldn’t remember what had happened. “She said she had no idea how she got in the water,” said the friend, who declined to give her name.

The retiring and visibly distraught woman often looked down and tried to control her emotions but started to cry when she recalled finding out her husband had flown to India.

She talked about the other times he had left her and their children, for as long as six months a time.

“Every time he go--hard time, hard time,” she said, adding that with limited English skills and no car at her disposal, she was often frightened when he left.

She stressed how alone she felt, without Indian friends or a support network beyond her neighbor Elisa Quezada, who speaks mostly Spanish. With no job nor savings, Virk said, her circumstances were “not happy.”

Although Virk said it was rough when her husband was out of the country, life was also difficult when he was in Port Hueneme.

Sometimes he would go days without talking to her and other days he would be emotionally abusive, she said. “Always he say, ‘I no good wife,’ ” she said. “Always yell at me.”

Virk said her husband provided for the family erratically--at times not buying groceries or clothes for the children.

Although authorities would not speculate on the mother’s state of mind or possible motive when she woke her children and walked them two blocks to the water’s edge, police records confirm the Virks had a history of marital problems and that things usually got worse when Santokh Virk left for India.

Port Hueneme police responded to two calls last year, one by Narinder Virk in February to report that she and the children had been abandoned five months earlier. Then two months later, police were called to the family’s condo to handle an argument between the parents.

Those interested in contributing to the Harpreet and Sonny Virk Trust Fund established by Wiggins can mail donations to Cal Fed Bank, 739 West Channel Island Blvd, Port Hueneme, Calif., 93041. For further information, contact branch manager Lolini Teas at 985-2324.