Witnesses know who shot Wayne Mohan
No one’s talking but parents believe shooting was over a $50 debt
CAMBRIDGE — Ken Mohan was one of about 100 people who attended a soccer-related party and barbecue at the Oriental Sports Club in North Dumfries on June 22, 1996.
His son Orville Mohan, better known as Wayne, an alumnus of Preston High School, Galt Collegiate Institute and Conestoga College, also was there. Ken decided to leave relatively early in the evening. He didn’t know when he walked out the doors it would be the last time he would see his 24-year-old son alive.
Ken’s daughter called him the next morning to tell him Wayne had been shot. By the time he arrived at hospital, Wayne had died.
“It still hurts,” Ken said, almost 24 years after the tragedy. “After 23 years we’re still grieving.”
There were many rumours circulating at the time about the reason for the shooting, but one thing known for sure is Wayne was shot once in the groin with a handgun. After he was shot, friends comforted Wayne while waiting for the ambulance to arrive. They waited. And waited.
The time became a sticking point in the investigation of Wayne’s death. Friends say it took 30 to 45 minutes for the ambulance to arrive, but a provincial official told the Record that dispatch records indicate it took 18 minutes for the ambulance to arrive. The ambulance had to be redirected en route due to confusion about where the sports club was located, but the delay was only two minutes.
Records show Wayne arrived at hospital at 11:48 p.m., 45 minutes after the initial ambulance call at 11:03 p.m. He died shortly after he arrived at hospital.
Family friend Sydney Ramsay, who told the Record at the time he was outside the club’s building when he heard the gunshot, wanted to take him to hospital himself.
“I said to the police, ‘I know this kid and I want to take him to the hospital,’ but the police said, ‘Oh no sir, you can’t move him, you can’t touch him.’ … It was 45 minutes before the ambulance got there. I could have gotten him to the hospital at least a half an hour before,” Ramsay told the Record.
Despite discrepancies about the ambulance response time, police were now looking at a homicide. The two questions that needed to be answered were who and why.
Ken learned it was a man nicknamed Monkey who pulled the trigger, but he never found out his real name. He was also told police interviewed him.
“I heard this guy came from out of nowhere, probably Toronto, walked up, pulled out a gun and shot him in the leg, to death,” Ken said.
Sgt. Dennis Butcher said at the time there were reports of several shots fired, and it was believed the shooting was drugrelated or the result of an insult or fight. While there was no evidence presented that Wayne was involved in a scuffle, Ken said there’s a possibility he was breaking up an altercation when it happened.
“He was like a big brother, everyone could tell you that.”
Ramsay told the Record he saw a man wearing green clothing walk into the club, he heard a shot and saw the man leave and appear to stick what looked like a revolver under his shirt. A second man appeared, and he passed the gun to him. They jumped into a waiting car. Ramsay wrote down the licence plate number and gave it to police.
He also said both men were black. The man dressed in green clothing was about fivefoot-seven, slightly built and between the ages of 25 and 28.
He believes the other gunshots police heard were fired to divert attention away from the two men.
Ken, however, suggested the shooting was over a $50-clothing debt that dated back two years. He and his wife Angie, Wayne’s stepmother, told police Wayne bought a piece of clothing from a Cambridge woman who claimed he never paid her for it. The parents didn’t know what article of clothing it was. The woman vowed she would collect the money no matter what.
“She was the one who made all these threats. I can’t confirm it or anything, but she’s a bad person. Very bad.”
Even with those leads, the police investigation was stymied. Ken and the police said no one would talk.
“I was in a group and this guy was talking about it,” Ken said. “He had an ID and what he saw, and as soon as someone said I was the father, he just clammed up. Everybody wants to get involved, but nobody wants to get involved.”
Staff Sgt. Brent Thomlinson told the Record in 2001 many witnesses saw the shooting and could identify the shooter, but they wouldn’t co-operate with police.
Cherri Greeno, manager of corporate communications and public information for Waterloo Regional Police, said in many investigations police find witnesses who are reluctant to come forward, but they can potentially affect the outcome.
“If someone out there does have information regarding this investigation and does not want to come forward, we would highly encourage them to contact Crime Stoppers, where an anonymous tip can be made. No matter how minimal they may think the information may be, it could end up being the piece investigators need to solve the case,” she said.
Ken believed the reason for witnesses not talking was distrust of police.
“The way that police treated black kids, black kids didn’t want to talk to them. And that’s a fact.”
All these years later, Ken said he’s just looking for closure and hopes it will come.
“It’s affected the family, not in a good way. Any time anybody loses a young person … it never goes away.”
Although Wayne's body was taken back to Jamaica, where he was born and where his mother Marjorie Henry still lives, part of his spirit remained here — a son. Wayne’s son just graduated from university, Ken said.
“So, that’s a positive thing in his memory. But he died, and he left a son he never knew.”
With the passage of time, and the officers involved all retired, Greeno said it would be up to witnesses to finally come forward. “In any case such as this, any new information or any witnesses who would come forward.