A Toronto mother is grieving after her son became the latest victim of gun violence in the city.
Toronto police have identified 19-year-old Marcel Teme of Toronto as the third person to die after four people were shot in Toronto’s Kensington Market on Canada Day.
Teme initially survived the attack but passed away during surgery at St. Michaels Hospital on Wednesday.
Monique Mukanga says her son told her he was going out with a friend Sunday evening. She didn’t know anything was wrong until police called her late that night to tell her Marcel had been shot.
His death has left her heartbroken, looking for answers.
“He was a baby,” she told CTV Toronto. “My baby.”
“What he did, I don't know,” Mukanga added. “If he killed somebody, if he did something, why didn't he come to see me?”
Mukanga is joined by other members the local community in calling for justice for the victims of gun violence.
Pastor Keaton Austin was one of several advocates that came together Saturday afternoon for a community forum on the rise in gun violence, demanding action.
“She needs justice for her son,” he said.
Standing on Toronto’s Queen Street, near the nightclub where two other men were shot and killed last Saturday, the group called on Mayor John Tory and the Toronto police to solve the crimes.
That shooting was part of a string of gun violence that ripped through Toronto over the course of the long weekend. Eleven people were shot, with three succumbing to their injuries.
The other two deceased are 21-year-old Jahvante Smart, also known as Smoke Dawg, and 28-year-old Ernest Modekwe, who were killed in the brazen attack outside a downtown night club on June 30.
Earlier in the week, Toronto Mayor John Tory said statistics indicate that more than 75 per cent of the shootings in Toronto are in some way gang-related.
"Who were the people that pulled the trigger on Queen Street?” he said. “Were they the boy scouts?”
Tory added that the city is taking action by hiring some 170 police officers.
With a report from CTV Toronto’s Sean Leathong
