WARMINGTON: Too many young people gunned down in Toronto to remember their names
But the the mother of the latest victim of a stray bullet wants everybody to remember her eight-year-old son Jahvai Roy's name
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Toronto is a city that eats its young. And then forgets about them.
Until the next innocent young person is shot to death. Then Toronto says what it needs to say to get through the unspeakable reality before moving on and going back to status quo – albeit without the latest murder victim, of course.
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WARMINGTON: Too many young people gunned down in Toronto to remember their names Back to video
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“Remember his name! Never forget his name!” said the mother of the innocent child killed just last week.
His name was JahVai Roy. He was just eight-years old. Shot to death in his own bed.
With her strong words and passionate plea in a Facebook post, his mom, Holly Roy, was certainly 100% right that no one should ever forget his name because he is as innocent a shooting victim as there ever could be.
What happened here was a horror. It was one of Toronto’s darkest ever days.
As Holly wrote on Facebook “we were in bed!! He was laying beside me and then we heard the shots! Two shots . . . My baby sat up. The last look he gave me was fear! Then another three shots and I felt glass hit my face. I went to grab my son to put him on the floor and he was lifeless!”
Holly added: “His blood sprayed all over me. I couldn’t even look at him. I knew where the bullet went! I ran with my son’s lifeless body to my doorway. The devastation my kids witnessed. There was nothing I can do but scream and hold his lifeless little body . . . I cannot unsee and feel my baby’s blood on me” and “I’m so f…… and I’m so f…… angry!”
The whole city should be angry that something like this could ever happen. But will Toronto remember his name? Don’t be so sure.
It’s hard to remember the names and faces of all of the innocent murder victims in Toronto, let alone the whole GTA, who have been savagely gunned down by bullets that were not meant for them.
JahVai is the latest. But the list is obscene.
Before we put some of those names here, please do your own test to see if you can name somebody murdered by a gun who was just going about their day. It’s not easy.
Most remember Dante Andreatta Marroquin, who at just 12, was shot to death while walking home with his mother at Jane St. and Finch Ave. in 2020. But the rest become a blur. This shouldn’t be. We should know every name. To Canada’s shame, it’s such a long list.
But first things first.
Who shot this gun that killed this little boy. And where is that person, or those persons, who are responsible for this shootout in an adjacent playground in the Black Creek-Trethaway Drs. area?
You better believe there is a manhunt underway.
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“This is still a very active and ongoing investigation,” said Toronto Police media spokesperson Stephanie Miceli.
As Homicide Det.-Sgt. Jason Davis’ did say in his scrum about eight-year-old Roy, it was a “stray bullet” that came into the boy’s bedroom from below.
“A group of individuals were in a playground outside the residence when the shooting occurred,” added TPS spokesperson Stephanie Sayer.
Chief Myron Demkiw has encouraged the people involved to retain lawyers and turn themselves in.
It’s only a matter of time before Davis and his team track down who was in that playground and get them in handcuffs. Stay tuned.
But this boy had a name. A personality and a future. Now a mother is preparing to bury him. It’s not acceptable or tolerable.
“I’ve decided to bury him in some Jordan’s. He loves his shoes. Instead of moccasins,” said gutted and devastated Holly Roy in a Facebook Post. “I am burying him in Wikwemikong (on Manitoulin Island) and having a celebration of Iife for him here in his city upon his burial. I want everyone to come and eat and share stories of him, I want everyone to remember his name. “
A GoFundMe, which had raised more than $43,000 by 2 p.m. on Monday, has been set up to help with expenses.
As police try to sort out who his killer or killers were, no matter how many arrests they end up making, there will never be any justice. As photographer and reporter Jack Boland and crime columnist Brad Hunter have also noted, the slayings of our young people is not a new phenomenon. And they keep happening.
In early September 2024, 15-year-old Mario Giddings was shot to death in a plaza in the same neighbourhood in what police described as a targeted shooting. This past June, 15-year-old Jakhai Jack was shot in an “unprovoked attack.” In March, 16-year-old Yonadab Dar was shot in a downtown apartment; his friend was charged.
There are so many other young people who have been shot to death, either targeted or untargeted, to possibly list them all. But, in the spirit of what Holly Roy has asked for in terms of keeping her son’s memory alive, here are some of the cases I personally have been involved in covering over the years.
It may be too many to remember them all but their families sure do.
Safiullah Khosrawi was just 15 when he was gunned down in Scarborough. Jahvante Jahqwane Sheldon Smart, known as Smoke Dawg; Dimarjio Antonio Jenkins, known as Houdini; and international student from India Kartik Vasudev are three murder victims from recent years. All three were just 21.
So many more have been savagely stolen from us by gunshots: Georgina (Vivi) Leimonis, Jane Creba, Chantal Dunn, Breanna Davy, Shyanne Charles, Joshua Yassay, Kesean Williams (Brampton), St. Aubyn Rodney, Tyson Bailey, Jarvis Montague, Ephraim Brown, Ariela Navarro-Fenoy, Bailey Zaveda, Jordan Manners, John O’Keefe, Lecent Ross, Naveed Shahnawaz, Dameion McFarland, Nambdi Ogba, Jenas Nyarko, Reese Fallon, Julianna Kozis, Ruma Amar, Christopher Jung, Doug Devlin and Candice Rochelle Bobb and her prematurely delivered baby, Kyrie.
Every one of these cases – from Just Desserts to Boxing Day on Yonge St. to the Danzig barbecue to the Danforth rampage — were all big in the news at the time they happened.
And, as things moved on, there was no progress made to keep Toronto’s young people safe. More murders occurred.
Maybe it will be this time that Toronto says, “enough is enough” and acknowledges a soft border, the cancellation of police carding and easy bail and short sentences, have played a role in what is a dangerous city. Holly Roy is right. Maybe JahVai Roy’s senseless slaying will be the turning point.
His grieving mom would sure like it to be so no mother ever has to experience what she did.
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