Man sentenced to 14 years in prison for Danzig shooting

A Toronto judge has sentenced a young man to 14 years in prison in the Danzig shooting that killed two people and injured 22 others.

On Friday morning, Nahom Tsegazab, 20, pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter in the deaths of Shyanne Charles, 14, and Joshua Yasay, 23. With time served already in pre-trial custody, he has 11 years and five months left behind bars.

During sentencing, Justice John McMahon said Tsegazab is a party to the shooting but the Crown couldn’t prove whether it was his bullets that killed Charles and Yasay. Both the Crown and defence had asked for a 14-year prison term.

“He participated in the gun fight and encouraged others to shoot,” McMahon said.

Earlier in the day, the court heard emotional victim impact statements from the victims’ family.

Shyanne’s mother Afifa Charles said she still suffers nightmares from seeing her daughter’s lifeless body, while Yasay’s mom Romuno Yasay told the court she often wakes in the middle of the night crying.

The alleged member of the Galloway Boys gang who goes by the street name Gifted addressed them directly, begging for forgiveness and promising to change his life.

“So long as he is sincere in what he is saying, I accept it. Don’t say it to make me feel good. It won’t work; it’s not about me,” Shyanne’s grandfather Tyrone Charles said outside of court.

Charles also said he doubts any sentence will satisfy him.

“No matter how much time they give him, society would never see it as enough,” he said.

“They can give him 25 years and it wouldn’t be enough because my granddaughter and Joshua wouldn’t [be] coming back.”

The east-end shooting that broke out during a community barbecue on Danzig Street in July 2012 was Toronto’s worst mass shooting.

According to an agreed statement of facts, Tsegazab was shot twice at the barbeque. As the shooter fled, Tsegazab drew his gun and fired 11 rounds at the gunman who retreated into the crowd.

As he fled into the crowd, an unknown third gunman fired 14 rounds from a 9-mm Uzi, hitting Shyanne and injuring others. Yasay was shot in the heart and lungs but it’s inconclusive which gun killed him.

Another man, Shaquan Mesquito, who was 18 at the time, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting. He’s also facing an attempted murder charge for allegedly shooting Tsegazab.

Read the agreed statement of facts below:

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