Victim Identified In Scarborough Murder
Posted July 10, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Toronto ‘s 29 th murder victim of the year was in the wrong place at the wrong time according to a guilt-ridden friend who drove him to the housing complex where he was fatally shot on Wednesday night.
A man who only wanted to be identified as ‘Bryan’ said he drove 21-year-old Justin Brunet to 1979 Victoria Park Ave., near Lawrence. Not long after dropping him off, bullets starting flying. Brunet was hit in the head and died at the scene and another man, aged 25, was also wounded but is expected to survive.
“He just got his licence back, his G1, and he wanted to drive, and yesterday I let him drive and I drove him here. He drove himself here,” the man explained through sobs.
“I heard he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I don’t know.”
Bryan also claims the victim had a son.
“Sometimes he needed a ride to get groceries. Sometimes he needed a ride to pick up his kid. He was a good dad, man…He was just a family guy, doing what it takes to make ends meet in the city, but he was not a thug. He did not own guns. He did not sell guns. He was not a bad kid.”
The murder marks the 15th shooting death of the year in Toronto.
Witnesses say about a half a dozen men pulled up along a side street in two cars. They parked and the shooters got out and ran down a laneway before opening fire into a group of men. The shooters then ran back to the waiting cars and took off. They are still at large.
“I heard a bunch of bangs, pops, and when I looked down I saw … like smoke, and then a bunch of guys running one way and two guys running the other way,” neighbour Wendy Newman said.
If you have any information that could help investigators, call police at (416) 808-7814 or CrimeStoppers at (416) 222-TIPS.
