Cabbies left shooting victim in the line of fire, friend says
Woman tried to flee club melee, but drivers turned down $8 fare
As gunfire erupted in the background, Arelia Navarro-Fenoy and her two friends knew they had to get home immediately, to safety.
The original plan was to head to a nearby parking lot to get a ride from a friend after a night of partying at Muzik, where rapper Drake had hosted his OVO Fest after-party Monday evening.
But they picked up the pace, walking toward a line of about10 taxis on Dufferin St. They tried cab after cab but, as friend Franca Abate told the Star, the response was always the same.
“They all refused us,” she said of the cabbies, who appeared unaware of the danger. “They said it was only an $8 fare.”
So they headed toward the friend’s car to escape the chaos and confusion and return home to the Bathurst St. and Lake Shore Blvd. area early Tuesday morning.
But as they walked, they saw men arguing. Then one drew a gun, Abate said.
Navarro-Fenoy was only about four steps behind her when gunfire erupted again, she said, and she turned around to find her best friend, roommate and business partner on the ground.
Abate and her other friend tied a sweater around Navarro-Fenoy to try to staunch the bleeding, while Abate held her hand.
They screamed for help, but everyone was running away.
About five minutes later, a police officer arrived to perform CPR, Abate said.
"Had we gotten in a cab, this wouldn’t have happened," she said. "We could have gotten home safely."
I lost my best friend,” she said. Abate’s nickname is Yin; NavarroFenoy’s was Yang.
“The cab should take any person who comes up to them,” Abate said. “There should be an automatic fine or loss of job for something like that.”
Navarro-Fenoy, a huge Drake fan, was an innocent bystander caught up in a shooting that claimed another life, that of 23-year-old Duvel Hibbert, inside the Exhibition Place club. Three other people were injured.
One police working theory is that Hibbert was identified by someone in the crowd as a “snitch,” which prompted messages to go out in search of a gun that may have been passed over a security fence.
Asenior police source said the security set up at the event was woefully inadequate given the number of attendees.
Muzik released a statement after the shooting saying that there were 73 security guards on duty and 15 specially trained guards who conduct body searches, “including the use of metal-detecting wands, on all patrons entering the property.”
Hibbert had been set to appear in a Toronto courtroom on Thursday on charges of possession and trafficking of cocaine.
He was also facing drug-related charges in Brampton.
Navarro-Fenoy has been described by friends as funny and cheerful, a person who would talk to anyone.
“I don’t want to point any fingers, but if a cab driver would have taken her home, this would not have happened,” said another friend, Jabari Bowry, who was not with the women that night.
“They couldn’t leave because they lived so close.”
Abate and Navarro-Fenoy had been working together on a book that Abate described as a “lifestyle checklist,” detailing how to create balance in your life and be aware of loving yourself.
Abate still intends to launch that book, and to drive home the message that there needs to be more love and fewer guns in the world.
“This (book) was the first thing she was going to put her name on as an entrepreneur,” she said.
“This gives me more purpose. She wanted to be a legend, and she will be.
“This tragedy will be turned into a victory.”
Police have released descriptions of two persons of interest from Tuesday’s shooting and are appealing for anyone who might have images or videos of the incident to send them to investigators. With files from Betsy Powell