Family and friends gathered to say goodbye Saturday to the two Toronto teenagers killed this week during a daytime shooting near an Etobicoke school.
Zaid Athir Youssef, 17, and Michael Menjivar, 15, were shot and killed in the city’s northwest on Monday afternoon.
Menjivar, a student at James Cardinal McGuigan Catholic High School, located near Keele Street and Finch Avenue, was remembered Saturday in a service at the St. Augustine of Canterbury Parish.
Youssef, a student of Don Bosco Catholic Secondary near Islington Avenue and Dixon Road, was memorialized at a service at the Good Shepherd Chaldean Church.
Youssef’s family emigrated from Iraq in 2003. "We came to Canada to look for a better life for our kid," father Athir Yousif told CTV Toronto earlier this week. The young soccer fan had received a BMW car as a birthday present on the weekend before his death.
Outside the church, Youssef’s family and friends said they are looking for answers.
“Who had the gun? Why kill that kid? What’s the reason?,” said relative Fadi Walid. ”Everybody wants to know.”
Police say the teens read about a planned fight on social media and then decided to check it out. They may not have been the intended targets of the shooters.
Toronto police released images Wednesday of five “persons of interest” who may be connected to the shooting, which happened shortly after 12:30 p.m. Monday near the School of Experiential Learning at 40 McArthur St.
Homicide investigators are asking for the public's help in identifying the five males captured by security camera footage. Anyone with information is asked to call police at 416-808-7400, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-8477 (TIPS), or to leave a tip online or on Facebook.
With a report from CTV Toronto’s Colin D’Mello
