List Of Violent Incidents In West End
Posted May 12, 2009 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
They thought it was a nice neighbourhood. That’s what one resident of the Dundas and Scarlett Rd. area told CityNews on Monday, after the city’s latest murder victim was discovered in a field near Runnymede C.I.
Adrian Johnston was just 14-years-old when he was shot to death and left to die in that lonely spot.
It’s the latest in a pattern of disturbing incidents around the same area that’s seen four murders in the last month alone. Here’s a look back at just some of the violence and why many are becoming increasingly scared about the place they call home.
May 11: Adrian Johnston
Residents in the Dundas and Scarlett Rd. area hear several shots ring out around 5pm and find the body of a young boy lying in a hydro field on Eileen Ave. Adrian Johnston is mortally wounded from several gunshots, as well meaning rescuers try to save his life. One recalls seeing a tear roll down his cheek as he died in her arms.
A suspect was seen fleeing through a nearby golf course but was gone by the time police arrived. No arrests have been made in the 18th murder of the year. The victim is the youngest so far – just 14.
May 10: Six Shot At Birthday Party
It wasn’t exactly in the same neighbourhood, but cops are still wondering if there’s a link between the shooting of six people at a West Mall birthday party and other murders several kilometres away.
The victims were all surprised by their assailants at the affair, and neighbours tell CityNews they believe at least one of them may have been deliberately targeted in retaliation for another shooting in the past few weeks. No arrests have been made but all the victims survived their injuries.
Cops are looking for a high end car that was caught on security cameras fleeing the scene.
May 5: Samuel Oliveira Junior
The only other fatal knife attack on the list. The 46-year-old victim was discovered stabbed in the chest at Brock and Dundas St., not far from Dufferin. He was rushed to St. Michael’s Hospital, but doctors couldn’t save him. A 34-year-old is facing second degree murder charges in the 17th homicide of 2009. The motive for the killing isn’t known.
April 21: Danny Lewis
Danny Lewis went to a local community centre near Rogers and Keele to take part in a program. But the 19-year-old got into some kind of dispute with at least two people outside the building, an argument that escalated into gunfire. Witnesses heard someone shout “don’t disrespect me!” before several shots rang out, hitting Lewis in the back.
Paramedics raced to the scene and found Lewis lying bleeding in an alleyway. They managed to revive him but he later died in hospital.
In a CityNews exclusive, his distraught mother would later reveal that her son had been kicked out of school at age 13 and had gotten in with the wrong crowd.
She did her best to turn him around and had always warned him he might die young if he didn’t mend his ways. But he told her to stop preaching to him and to leave him alone.
Her worst fears came true that night, when sirens brought police to her door. “Once they get involved with a certain type of crowd, it’s very hard to get them back,” Lisa Mitchell lamented.
Lewis was the city’s 14th murder of the year. Two young offenders have been charged with second degree murder.
April 22: Omar Waite
Less than a day later, police are back in the same area, this time about a kilometre away from where Lewis was gunned down.
Omar Waite, 29, was standing a bus stop near Jane and Eglinton when a gunman walked up to him in broad daylight and opened fire. It was just past the dinner hour and the busy intersection was crowded with traffic and people.
Waite collapsed into a bus shelter and died in hospital, the city’s 15th homicide of the year and the second in less than 24 hours. The gunman was least seen fleeing through Eglinton Flats but despite a police dragnet, he remains at large. Authorities suspect gang activity may be behind the shooting.
April 24: Man Shot In The Leg
It has now been less than 48 hours since two murders rocked the same general area of the city. And on a Friday night, police are dealing with yet another gun call. Only this time, the shooters thankfully failed to succeed.
A man staggers into a donut shop at Jane and Trethewey after being hit in the leg in what’s believed to be a drive-by shooting. A car with four men inside is seen speeding away from the scene. One was armed with a shotgun. None are in custody.
May 1st: Jarvis St. Remy
After a week of bloody violence comes yet another outrage. Jarvis St. Remy had been visiting a friend at Dundas and Scarlett Rd. and was waiting at a bus stop around 10:30pm, heading home in time for a midnight curfew. A gunman appeared from out of the darkness and fired several shots at the 19-year-old, who later died in hospital.
His family was both distraught and baffled by the slaying, noting St. Remy was a good kid about to graduate from high school and go on to college. He’d never been in any trouble and was described as being well liked by just about everyone who knew him. Cops believe it may have been a case of mistaken identity and that his killer was looking for someone else.
There have been no arrests, despite emotional pleas from the victim’s mother and family. Jarvis St. Remy was the city’s 16th murder victim of 2009.
The city’s ninth murder victim of the year was found slumped over the wheel of his high end BMW near the York Civic Centre at Keele and Eglinton. It would take a week of probing, but cops think they finally figured out what happened that night, alleging the victim and his assailant may have gotten into a deadly dispute over drugs. They believe 22-year-old Daniel Da Silva may have been lured there by his killers.
Cops used security video to track down a suspect. A 20-year-old has been charged with second-degree murder.
Feb. 1: Jahmelle Grant
The city’s sixth murder victim of the year met his end early on a Sunday morning. It was just 7:30am on the sleepy weekend when someone shot 26-year-old Jahmelle Grant at what cops would call an after-hours booze can located near Lawrence and Weston Rd. Another man and a woman were also hurt in the shooting, but survived. There have been no arrests in the case.
Jan 20: Basil Bryan
Toronto’s fifth murder victim of the still new year was found lying on a cold sidewalk near Keele and Eglinton Ave. around 10:45pm. Cops got a rare break in this case: the murder was captured on the video surveillance camera of an auto body shop across the street.
Basil Bryan had been shot twice in the chest. He died on the way to Sunnybrook’s trauma unit. He was just 23. “The young male was walking along the street with a friend, at which time he was approached by someone or some persons, and at that time he was shot,” Det. Sgt. Savas Kyriacou told CityNews the next day.
Despite the footage and a witness, there have been no arrests in the case.
Jan 17: Kevin Boateng
The first death of the year in 12 Division came with the discovery of the 18-year-old. He was stabbed to death and left at the side of the road at Davenport and Miller, not far from St. Clair and Old Weston Rd. Boateng died in hospital after being knifed in the abdomen. Cops admit the fourth murder victim of the year was known to them.
