Emotional victim impact statements read at Danzig sentencing
Posted November 25, 2016 1:57 pm.
Last Updated November 25, 2016 6:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A man who was convicted earlier this year of opening fire at a Danzig Street block party in 2012 apologized to the families of the victims in court on Friday.
The man, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. He was found guilty of second-degree murder, attempt murder, aggravated assault and reckless use of a firearm in March.
He will be sentenced on December 7.
“If I hadn’t brought a firearm to the barbeque your loved ones would be alive,” he said. “I was a difficult and disrespectful 17-year-old, I’m so sorry.”
Shyanne Charles, 14, and Joshua Yasay, 23, were killed and 22 others were injured at the barbecue, which was held at a housing complex near Morningside Avenue and Danzig Street on July 16, 2012.
At the sentencing hearing, the court heard victim impact statements from Charles’s grandfather and Yasay’s family.
Yasay’s eight-year-old brother submitted this heartbreaking drawing.
The man is the last suspect to be sentenced in the shooting and the only one that went to trial.
Last year, two first-degree murder charges were dropped against Shaquan Mesquito, one of the other men accused in the shooting. He pleaded guilty to other charges, including counselling to murder and uttering a threat to a person to cause bodily harm. He was sentenced to nine years less time served.
In 2014, Nahom Tsegazab was sentenced 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of manslaughter.
Here are victim impact statements from both families:
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Man guilty of second-degree murder in Danzig shooting
Murder charges dropped against accused in Danzig shooting case
Man sentenced to 14 years in prison for Danzig shooting
