Huge turnout for slain Toronto teacher’s funeral

About 1,700 people paid their respects on Friday to a Toronto teacher killed in a Lawrence Heights triple shooting earlier this week.

Police say Abshir Hassan, 31, and a young couple were shot multiple times outside a low-rise apartment building at 11 Flemington Rd., near Lawrence Avenue West and the Allen Road, early Tuesday morning.

The three were taken to hospital where Hassan later died of his injuries. The other two victims, a woman and a man, remain in hospital.

Police say Hassan was attending a friend’s birthday party and had gone outside to move his vehicle when he was shot.

They were innocent victims, but it’s still unclear what motivated the shooters, police say.

Before the prayer service, Hassan’s father Ahmed told CityNews, “Abshir is somebody who gave up his life for people in need. He put all these people ahead of his life.”

“We have lost a giant person. A person who was trying to make a change.”

“He was the shining light of the family.”

The prayer service for Hassan was held Friday afternoon at the Khalid Bin Al-Walid Mosque on Bethridge Road, near Kipling and Rexdale Boulevard.

There will also be a community gathering from 6 p.m.-10 p.m. at the Lawrence Heights Community Centre.

Hassan’s father, who thanked the public for its outpouring of support, said that the family has set up a trust fund and money raised will go towards setting up a scholarship for at-risk youth in his son’s honour.

The CIBC transit number is 01912 and the account number is 7916280.

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