New charges, endless grief in van rampage aftermath
Xiaolong An and Ji-Hoon Kim were meeting on Yonge St. to work on a presentation together. The pair of Seneca College students wandered into a Starbucks, but couldn’t find seats to work.
So they went to cross the road to find somewhere else to stay.
That’s when a white van came barrelling down the street, knocking them both to the ground. Kim wouldn’t survive the crash and, on Thursday, An’s name was added to the list of attempted murder victims in the charges against alleged driver Alek Minassian.
The attempted murders of Dina Risin and Hyeon Moon were also added Thursday to the charges Minassian faces in court, bringing the total charges to 16 counts of attempted murder and 10 counts of first-degree murder.
An injured his arm in the fall, but the damage was minor.
For Kim, it was a different story. An stood up to find her lying on the ground in front of him. “I called 911,” he told the Star. It took about 10 minutes for the first police car to arrive, he estimated.
Then more police cars arrived, followed by paramedics, and they began rushing victims to hospital.
They started doing CPR on Kim, trying to save her life. “But it was useless,” he said. “She died.” Seneca sent cars to take its students to campus after the attack. An said that when they arrived, he went in to talk to the college’s president, who called Kim’s father overseas. Three days later, he made his formal statement to the police.
Since the tragedy, An feels nerves bubbling up seeing cars behind him on the streets. He found it troubling to watch the crash scenes in the newest Avengers film.
Despite the charge against Minassian of An’s attempted murder, An says he doesn’t plan to attend any of the accused’s court appearances. “It isn’t necessary for me,” he said. Minassian, 25, appeared in 1000 Finch West court Thursday via video link, represented by lawyers Boris Bytensky and Breese Davies.
“This isn’t a time to discuss Mr. Minas- sian,” Bytensky told a pack of reporters outside court.
“This is still a grieving period for the city. We have many victims of this offence. There are many families that are grieving for those lives lost. Our thoughts, and the Minassian family’s thoughts, are with them and we’d like to keep the focus on making sure the focus is in the right place.”
Bytensky said the charges have been “devastating” for his client’s family, but “they stand behind their son. They’re very respectful of the court process.”
Those who died in last month’s attack ranged in age from 22 to 94, and included a student from South Korea and a man from Jordan.
Eight people injured in the attack remain either in hospital or a rehabilitative facility, Bott said Thursday.
Saron Gebressellassi, a lawyer helping out many of those injured, was at Minassian’s court appearance.
“The families want to know what’s going on here,” Gebressellassi said. “But their priorities are elsewhere, so I’m going to let them know.”
She went to Sunnybrook on the day of the attack to help the victims, and said questions from them and their families go far beyond medical concerns.
“I would be getting so many questions from people about how to pay the mortgage, how do we pay the rent,” she said. “That’s what people don’t see — come the first of the month, the rent is due.”
Gebressellassi said she’s gotten close to Amaresh Tesfamariam, an Eritrean-Canadian who has no immediate family in Toronto, but whose family is travelling in and out of the U.S. to be by her side.
“She’s still in the ICU,” Gebressellassi said. “The family is praying for the best. It’s very, very serious.”