Candlelight vigil to be held in honour of teen fatally stabbed at Toronto subway station

A candlelight walk to honour the life of Gabriel Magalhaes, the 16-year-old boy who was fatally stabbed at Keele Station over the weekend, will be held Thursday night in the west-end neighbourhood where he grew up.

Organized by some of Magalhaes’s former classmates at Keele Street Public School, the gathering will get underway at the Bloor Street gates of High Park at 8 p.m. and end at Keele Station.

Participants are asked to bring a candle or other light source to carry as they walk. People are also welcome to bring a note or flowers to add to the growing makeshift memorial outside Keele Station.

Gabriel graduated from the local elementary school in 2020 and most recently attended Etobicoke Collegiate Institute as a Grade 11 student.

In a social media post, organizers of the walk remembered Magalhaes as a “lovely friend, student and neighbour who touched so many lives.”

The candlelight walk comes two days after Gabriel’s parents Andrea and Antonio sat down with CTV News Toronto for an emotional interview in which they remembered their son as a “good, good kid,” who was a talented snowboarder that aspired to one day climb Mount Everest and study astrophysics.

“All my light has gone out,” Gabriel’s mother said.

Magalhaes was killed while returning home from a trip to the Eaton Centre with friends. Police have said that he was sitting on a bench inside the lower level of Keele Station when he was allegedly approached by a male suspect and stabbed multiple times. He died in hospital a short time later. Authorities have described the incident as an “unprovoked” attack.

Jordan O’Brien-Tobin, 22, of no fixed address, was arrested that night and charged with first-degree murder.

According to court documents obtained by CTV News Toronto, O’Brien-Tobin was wanted on an arrest warrant issued in a Newfoundland courtroom for nearly two years at the time of his arrest.

With files from CTV News Toronto’s Hannah Alberga.