There Are More Questions Than Answers About A Fatal Police Shooting Of A 15-Year-Old Boy

There are always questions raised anytime a cop draws his weapon.

But in the case of a fatal police shooting at Lawrence and Scarborough Golf Club Road early Tuesday, those queries are magnified.

What was a 15-year-old boy doing out at that hour?

Why was he driving a van when he wasn’t even old enough to have a license?

And why did cops shoot him when he was apparently unarmed?

The Special Investigations Unit is looking to solve those mysteries and more as they delve deeper into what happened at 5am behind a darkened apartment building.

They think they may already have solved some of the questions.

The van had been stolen Monday from a woman who parked it at a GO Station. Early theories suggest the victim may have been driving the vehicle towards the officer, who fired to save his own life.

Three of the five bullets from that gun allegedly struck the youngster and he quickly collapsed.

 “Two Toronto officers who were in a marked cruiser followed a van down a driveway in an apartment complex at 3700 Lawrence Avenue East,” the S.I.U.’s Rose Bliss confirms. “The officers exited the cruiser and they approached the van and became involved with a confrontation with a 15-year-old youth.  

“As a result, one officer discharged his firearm. Shots were fired, and the young man was struck. He has since died from his injuries, and we have been speaking with the family, and we have conducted a whole process of positive notification on the body.” Officials spent much of the day thoroughly going over the van and its contents for more clues.

Residents of the apartment building were awakened by the sounds of the ricochet.

“I heard the police come, heard the shots, ran to the balcony, and saw the guy die,” recalls Ken Curran. “It’s crazy. This place is getting really bad, Scarborough around here.”

Karen Hohre was disturbed to hear of the deadly incident in the neighbourhood she’s lived in for years.

“I’m kind of freaked out, you know,” she admits. “Early in the morning and this is … I mean I’ve lived here forever. Born at Scarborough General. My kids go to both of those schools (nearby). Kind of scary this is happening. These are probably kids around the same age as the teenagers I have.”

Schools in the area remained open but the children were kept inside for recess as the crime scene was processed.

Meanwhile, the owner of the stolen van came to the scene after she heard about the shooting to confirm it was her car.

“My friend picked me up and we decided to drive by to see if we can see the vehicle because we saw it on City, and now we’ve just discovered here it is,” Jennifer Harvey relates.  

But she doesn’t expect to be behind the wheel of her pilfered car ever again.

“I definitely don’t want it back,” she reveals.

Sources say the teen was from the area and was known to police.

The S.I.U., a civilian agency that probes all serious incidents involving law enforcement, will spend the next few weeks gathering evidence, interviewing witnesses and trying to discover what really happened in that lonely parking light by the dawn’s early light.