‘This is our home’
Life returns to the patios of Greektown as residents refuse to let mass shooting keep them away from the Danforth
Little more than a day after a mass shooting on the Danforth left a 10-yearold girl and 18-year-old woman dead, a semblance of normal life had returned to the busy street.
Restaurants and businesses that had closed in the immediate wake of the shooting reopened Tuesday. Cars and pedestrians returned, and subway trains were stopping again at Chester station.
At Lukumum café, patrons sipped espresso and people-watched from the patio. At Valley Farm Produce, custom- ers eyed fresh fruit for sale on the sidewalk.
Steps away was a growing victims memorial at Alexander the Great Parkette. “Love for all, hatred for none,” said a sign surrounded by red and white roses.
Achild’s drawing said “We love Toronto.” Messages written in multicoloured chalk were left on the fountain in the middle of the parkette: “We won’t forget you” and “Hold hands not guns.”
“It was a sombre morning,” said Adriana Sandu, manager of the Ten Spot spa.
“But I think as the day goes on, everyone has bounced back. It seems a lot more back to normal and if I didn’t know that it had happened, then it wouldn’t feel odd to me at this point.”
Sandu described the “lively” neighbourhood as strong and resilient.
“It’s very family oriented and everyone’s generally happy-golucky, walking around. Restaurants are usually full on the patios,” she said.
“It’s generally a great atmosphere here. I love Greektown.”
On Sunday night, a gunman walked from the parkette along the Danforth to Bowden St., shooting into cafés and restaurants. Reese Fallon, 18, and Julianna Kozis, 10, were killed.
Fallon had just graduated from Malvern Collegiate Institute. A spokesperson for her devastated family said he personally knew her to be as caring and “whip smart.”
Fallon’s younger sister posted a lengthy tribute on Instagram on Monday evening. “Today has been the hardest because I haven’t just lost a sister I’ve lost my lifelong best-friend and anyone who knew us knew that when we were together we were inseparable,” she wrote.
“I am crushed and broken and there won’t be one minute that goes by for the rest of my life that I won’t think of you.” A GoFundMe account has been set up for the family.
Another 13 people were injured. The gunman, identified by the Special Investigations Unit as Faisal Hussain, was later found dead of a gunshot wound, after a shootout with police on Bowden St.
A vigil for the victims will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday in front of the Danforth Church, at the corner of Danforth Ave. and Bowden St. It will be followed by a walk along the Danforth. All members of the community and people of all faiths are welcome, and encouraged to bring candles.
Another vigil was held Monday night at Calvary Church on Pape Ave.
Nancy Kruger had been walking around all day with her friend Lisa Bacardi. After stopping for a slice of pizza to support a local business, the two women joined the crowd in the church.
“I lived here for four years when I was younger,” Kruger said. “I come back all the time to that block where it happened.”
She said she attended to the vigil to show “we are not afraid to come back here.”
Scott Bradley, who lives nearby at Pape Ave. and O’Connor Dr., said he headed down to the vigil to show support and because it “hits very close to home. My heart goes out to those two girls.
“Their life is gone before they even get a chance to live it,” he said.
Shiraz Mohamed, an imam at nearby Madinah mosque, walked with a group of about 20 others from the mosque to the vigil.
“We are part of this community and we are affected like anybody else so we wanted to show our support,” he said, on his way to the vigil.
Monday evening, about 500 members of a Muslim youth organization converged on Danforth to commemorate the victims. They carried signs that said “#TorontoStrong” and “Love for all, hatred for none.”
They returned Tuesday, in larger numbers, to “show up and condemn the attack, first and foremost, show our solidarity and pray for the victims and their families,” said Blawal Aleem, a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at.
Aleem said the youth association also wanted to “disassociate the attack from any possible religious connection.”
“We want to show that Islam (promotes) peace and condemns violence,” he said.
Of the 15 victims shot in the rampage, eight were female. The surviving 13 range in age from 17 to 59 years old.
Five victims were taken to St. Michael’s Hospital with injuries ranging from serious to critical. Three of the patients underwent “immediate, lifesaving surgery.” Three remain in hospital — two in critical condition. One patient was discharged on Tuesday.
Sunnybrook hospital took in three victims who were still being treated Tuesday: one in critical but stable condition, and two in good condition.
Michael Garron Hospital took in seven people, two with gunshot wounds. One of those seven patients remains in hospital in stable condition.
Store owners along the Danforth were still talking on Tuesday about what they saw Sunday night. Bellare Amore owner Léa Ockrant was in the back of her shop when she heard popping sounds.
“And I thought, oh, fireworks,” she said. “I mean, that’s a hazard of our safe city — you hear gunfire and you think fireworks.”
Ockrant went to the front of her shop and looked out the door.
“As I started getting closer, I could hear somebody screaming,” she said. “A lady scream- ing, ‘He’s shooting at us.’ And I thought, what?
“And that’s when I realized, oh my God, this is not fireworks.”
Ockrant locked the door, turned off the lights and went to the back of her store.
She said that within moments, police were on the scene. A police presence remained Tuesday, with a few cruisers parked along the street and two officers on horseback.
“This is not our neighbourhood or our street, it’s our home,” Ockrant said.
She spoke to the Star outside her store, where she placed a #DanforthStrong sign.
“You just have to keep on going because there’s no answer for this,” she said. “You’re never going to find out why exactly this happened, but you have to stay strong and support each other and just hug everybody for a couple of days.
“I wish I could hug the families of those who were lost. And I wish that I could replace it, to change it, to go back and undo it. To look at that man and notice that he was struggling, and maybe hug him, too.”
Ockrant said the community will bounce back.
“What other choice do we have?” she asked. “If you chose not to bounce back, you can be hiding in the back room, not for a night but for the rest of your life and that’s not the human spirit. It’s not human nature to do that. We’ll bounce back, but they won’t ever be forgotten.”