Galloway Boyz member serving time for Danzig shootout granted day parole
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A Scarborough gang member who killed an innocent victim in the worst mass shooting in Toronto’s history was granted day parole but denied full parole.
A Parole Board decision granted Nahom “Gifted” Tsegazab day parole for six months, stating the 26-year-old “won’t present an undue risk to society if released.”
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Tsegazab, who is serving a sentence of 11-years and five-months for manslaughter and other charges, was a Galloway Boyz gang member. His gang was hosting the Danzig barbecue on July 16, 2012 when an armed rival gang member crashed the event.
A shootout between the rival gangs left honours student Joshua Yasay, 23, and Shyanne Charles, 14, dead, and 23 others wounded.
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Chester “Le Side” gang member Folorunsu Owusu was only 17 when he instigated the carnage by shooting Nahom Tsegazab, which triggered the barrage of bullets to be unloaded on the crowd of 200 partygoers.
Owusu is now serving a life sentence after being convicted of two counts of second-degree murder, although his gun did not kill either victim.
Tsegazab returned fire, striking Owusu as he ran into a crowd of 200 partygoers. Tsegazab‘s unidentified associate fired 14 rounds from his Uzi-style submachine gun.
Bullets from Gifted’s gun killed Yasay while the Uzi’s bullets killed Charles.
The parole board members who heard Tsegazab’s case say he has demonstrated his maturity by admitting he belonged to the gang — a fact he previously denied — “and that he was attracted to easy money and saw the lifestyle as exciting.”
“You took responsibility for your behaviour. You acknowledged … you could never undo the harm you have caused. You spoke about both victims by name,” stated the decision, released Wednesday.
The board considered his expressions of sympathy and remorse sincere.
“You wished both families well and hoped they would have peace.”
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Tsegazab is rumoured to be nicknamed “Gifted” because he was once in the gifted scholastic program before dropping out of Grade 10 to engage in a criminal lifestyle.
He finished high school while incarcerated but had two prison misconduct charges, one of which involved getting caught with “intimate images” of himself on a cellphone that he planned to send to two female friends.
In March 2019, he was found with kitchen knives in his property, but this charge was never processed due to an administrative error, the parole board stated.
The decision imposed several conditions, including that he not contact any of the victims or their relatives, and avoid anyone involved in criminal activity.
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