Young Quinn Fallon, 15, will speak for her older sister Reese who can’t be there.
So will Noor Samiei, whose 18th birthday it was that she, Reese and two others were celebrating with ice in the Alexander the Great Parkette when shots rang out and blood started to spill.
A dozen victims and families of Faisal Hussain’s July 22nd shooting rampage will also be back on The Danforth Friday — including Ken Price, whose teen daughter Samantha was among Hussain’s victims.
This difficult trip back to the scene of one of Toronto’s worst ever nightmares comes on the seventh month anniversary of the gutless shooting spree that killed Reese, 18, and Julianna Kozis, 10, and wounded 13 others before Hussain took his own life.
It’s going to be emotional — not just for them but for a whole community still suffering from this despicable mass shooting.
“For the first time, a group of Toronto’s Danforth shooting victims and their families are coming together to hold a news conference to speak about gun violence and the lack of action by governments,” stated a news release sent out by communications specialist Karen Snider, who is working with the families. “Led by youth, this group of shooting victims and their families have all been directly impacted by the mass shooting on Toronto’s Danforth Avenue July 22, 2018.”
An open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to be introduced, along with a petition.
It will happen at 10 a.m. at the Danforth Music Hall, 147 Danforth Ave., just steps from where the carnage occurred leaving the city scarred and still unclear why it occurred?
The main focus will be on gun control but the questions from the media and public must go further.
Toronto is owed facts on just what went on here. There are so many unanswered questions.
As revealed in Toronto Police’s Information to Obtain (ITO) request for a search warrant for the killer’s Thorncliffe Park apartment, there were many items located by search dogs including an arsenal of firearms ammunition and equipment, an “Islamic head dress” and a dozen electronic devices.
Police revealed Hussain’s father talking of a “took Faisal to Islamabad, Pakistan about 2-3 years ago to visit family” and that “Faisal was happy” and “did not want to return” to Canada.
Faisal Hussain. (Supplied by family)
When did they go? Who did Faisal meet? Did he ever have weapon’s training? What did the RCMP know about his trip or online activities? Was he red-flagged and visited by authorities, as has been reported from sources?
Did he have any interactions with his brother Fahad, who was charged for cocaine trafficking and whose surety Maisum Ansari’s residence was later found to be hiding 33 guns and 42 kilograms of deadly carfentanil?
These are just some of the many reasonable questions that need honest answers.
In the name of Reese and Julianna perhaps the return to this dark death scene will help make that happen.
