List Of Shootings In 2007
Posted November 26, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It was just 12 hours after the last New Year’s revelers went to bed that homicide detectives were back at work probing the first murder of 2007. Little did they know it would be one of 39 gun-related homicides that would keep them busy well into December.
Homicide #1 of 2007 involved the last person anyone would think of as being a candidate for a killing. Jean Springer, a woman known to her Markham and Sheppard Ave. family as “Auntie Jean” answered the door at her Snowball Cres. home, to find a man standing on the stoop. He reportedly said “Happy New Year” then pulled the trigger. A suspect was arrested the next day.
Cops allege a transaction between drug dealers goes wrong near Eglinton and Don Mills, leaving 23-year-old Jeffery Watson dead. A 25-year-old suspect surrenders in February.
Passersby find the body of 23-year-old Patrick Barrera in McDairmid Woods Park. It’s at first deemed suspicious and is later classified as a homicide after forensic results show the victim died of gunshot wounds.
The latest gunshot victim is also one of the youngest. Seventeen-year-old Kemar Long-Thompson is gunned down at 53 Scarborough Heights Blvd. A 14-year-old young offender surrenders the next month.
A stunned roommate returns to 10 Jayzel Drive in the Finch and Weston Road area on March 15th to find his roommate dead from gunshot wounds. Lincoln Thomas was 40. There’s been no arrest. It’s homicide number nine and the 5th shooting of the year.
The next one comes just two days later at a birthday party at a business in the Oakwood and Vaughan area. The victim: 32-year-old Christopher Holder.
Paramedics responding to a call find 29-year-old Tito Benjamin lying dead in an apartment above a store at Parliament and Wellesley. Cops admit they don’t have a lead to go on and the case remains open.
Eighteen-year-old Jeremy Paul is gunned down in a drive-by shooting, just metres from Burnhamthorpe Collegiate, at a school for adults on East Mall in Etobicoke. A 20-year-old male stands accused of 2nd degree murder.
Thirty-four-year-old Bradley Frank is found near the second floor elevator at 1340 Danforth Road. He’d been shot to death. A 22-year-old is charged with first-degree murder.
Cops are incensed as 24-year-old Kirk Richards of Mississauga is left to die after being gunned down outside a busy Dufferin and Wilson area club. Many saw what happened. Almost no one talks.
A man is found inside an alleged marijuana grow op house suffering from bullet wounds. He later succumbs in hospital. A 32-year-old male is charged with manslaughter.
A case that took the entire city by surprise involves a philanthropic 66-year-old named Glen Davis. He was seen going into a building 245 Eglinton Ave. E. but was ambushed by someone in the parking lot as he came out. By the time police arrived, he was dead from gunshot wounds. The suspect cops believe committed the deed was caught on video surveillance, but so far, he remains unidentified – and so does the motive, although detectives seem sure he was deliberately targeted.
Forty-year-old Mark Smith dies during a drive-by shooting on Weston Rd. A 37-year-old female companion inside the vehicle is injured but survives. There have been no arrests.
It is the shooting that leaves all of the city shaking its collective head wondering what is going on. Jordan Manners, a 15-year-old student at C.W. Jefferys C.I., is found shot to death in the hallway of the school. A long lockdown and a search for weapons follow. Two young offenders, both aged 17 and said to be friends of the victim, are arrested. Both are facing first degree murder charges.
It’s Victoria Day, but death takes no holiday. Nineteen-year-old Yonathan Musse is gunned down in a laneway off of Bathurst and Queen. He dies in hospital four days later. Despite appeals for witnesses, police are greeted only with silence.
Jose Seaz is killed and three of his friends are wounded in a drive-by near John Garland Blvd. and Jamestown Crescent. Two men in their 20s are accused of first degree murder and attempted murder.
Shootings #17 & #18: July 4, 2007
The first deadly double shooting of the year comes just three days after Canada Day. Charles Clifford, 43 and Shawn Day, 33, are both gunned down near Kingston Rd. and Sheppard Ave. A 16-year-old young offender surrenders five days later.
Police find 23-year-old Ricardo Francis lying on a lawn at a housing complex near Lawrence and the Allen. Many residents saw what happened, but few come forward and the case remains unsolved.
Kimel Foster was just 21 when he went to an Oakwood and Vaughan bar with friends. An argument broke out and when it was over, the young man was dead and three others were wounded. No arrests yet.
A shooting that outraged the entire city involved the youngest victim of all – 11-year-old Ephraim Brown. It’s believed he was playing outside his home at 1880 Sheppard Ave. West when he got caught between two warring gangs. Two 21-year-olds are facing first degree murder charges.
A violent night continues with the shooting of 31-year-old Shawn James in St. Jamestown. Three people, including a 16-year-old young offender and a 23-year-old woman, are all facing charges.
The third victim of the night is 24-year-old Amin Aafi. He was hit outside the Flirt Lounge near Adelaide and Duncan early in the morning. Despite a review of security video in the area, the case remains unsolved.
The body of 25-year-old Michael George is discovered at Wilcox Creek Pathway near Morningside and Finch. His family is baffled as to why anyone would shoot him four times, noting he was never involved in any gang activity. His murder case is still open.
One of the more intriguing cases from the year involved not just what was seen but what was heard. Toronto Police released audio tape of a garbled cell phone conversation between Munit Walia and someone named “Blanks.” The 27-year-old was gunned down in his car as he was waiting for his girlfriend outside a local daycare centre near Martin Grove and John Garland Blvd.
Nineteen-year-old Kevon Hall is found shot to death in a Regent Park housing complex. Despite the fact the murder happened in broad daylight – around 1pm – no one claims to have seen anything.
Shooting #27 August 16, 2007
Patrick Doan Lim is discovered in an apartment lobby on Jane St. without vital signs. Cops later determine he was shot to death.
Shootings#28 & #29: Sept. 19, 2007
Toronto’s most poignant double shooting comes from a gun wielded by a desperate man. Dying from cancer, 60-year-old Percy Grupstein kills his ailing 84-year-old mother Sarah in a College Park condo then turns the gun on himself. He leaves a note explaining he was worried no one could properly look after her.
Otis Rogers, 27, meets his end on the 12th floor of a Woolner Ave. apartment building. Cops arrest a 23-year-old man, charging Kendal Polius with first degree murder.
A tragic irony marks the shooting of 18-year-old Keegan Allen. He’s at an anti-violence rally on St. Clair Ave. W. on Thanksgiving night when he’s gunned down. No arrests have been made.
An alleged gunfight behind a Driftwood Ave. townhouse leaves 30-year-old Rachel Alleyne dead and three others wounded. No one has been arrested.
Cops aren’t sure just when what appears to be a domestic related murder-attempted suicide happened. All they can be sure of is an 81-year-old woman is dead and her 83-year-old husband is believed to have pulled the trigger. Despite initial reports that the older man died, he survives and is being charged with her murder. The motive is unknown.
An eerie echo of one of the city’s most notorious cases resurfaces, with the murder of 21-year-old Eric Boateng. Once tied to the group suspected of killing Jane Creba in 2005, he’s also gunned down after visiting an inmate in the Don Jail. Suspects are seen fleeing the area and remain at large.
This shooting begins with a double mystery – why was 20-year-old Jaime Hylton gunned down in an apartment building at 5005 Dundas St. W. and what happened to the couple that was living there? Cops later heard from them and were told they didn’t want to talk to police.
Dwayne Campbell was just 27 when he was shot to death at 285 Shuter St. He was getting off an elevator when he was ambushed.
Shootings # 37 & 38: Nov 23, 2007:
A long weekend for homicide detectives begins with the discovery of a man shot to death in a car at Birchmount and Bonis Ave. E. Ryan Hyde was just 19 when he was hit. Later that night, cops are called to an underground garage at 5600 Sheppard Ave. E. where 25-year-old Kennado Walker is discovered dead from gunshot wounds. Cops believe he killed the first victim, but don’t know who turned the gun on him.
The final month of the year gets off to a terrible start when 16-year-old Keyon Campbell is found at his mother’s house in the Morningside and Finch area at 1:40am suffering from gunshot wounds. He later dies in hospital. Police describe the boy as a bright and gifted student who was holding down a job. They have no apparent motive and no suspects. A major snowstorm hampers their ability to gather evidence at the scene.