Emotional vigil for man who died while being arrested

Friends, family and perfect strangers gathered Monday night to honour the life and mourn the loss of Charles “Charlie” McGillivary at a candlelight vigil near the intersection of Bloor and Christie. 

That’s where the 45-year-old died while being arrested by police last week.

McGillivary was out getting pizza with his mother last Monday when two officers stopped him. They said he may have fit the description of one of two suspects they were looking for.

What happened next is being probed by the province’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU), but witnesses, including McGillivary’s mother, said he was roughly tackled and restrained by police.

“I came out of [the pizza shop] and Charlie is there, his face turning blue, his eyes are rolling. ‘Look’ I said, ‘You’re killing him,’” the man’s mother, Ann McGillivary, told CityNews.

The grieving mother said her son suffered brain damage from a childhood car accident. He barely spoke, was deaf, and didn’t understand why officers were arresting him.

With files from Saphia Khambalia

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