A man who briefly came into contact with a woman who was shot dead during the Danforth rampage says he still sees her face when he closes his eyes, lamenting the fact he could not do more to save her.
Ali Demircan says he was sitting on a bench on the northwest corner of Logan and Danforth avenues on Sunday night with three of his friends when he heard what he first thought were firecrackers, then quickly realized an active shooter was in his midst.
“I jumped down and hid behind the stone bench. The (shooter), he stopped for just a minute,” Demircan told CP24. “Then I saw Reese Fallon. She was only hit in her right arm. She approached me and she just asked me to call 911.”
“She asked me to help – I tried to help her and I told her to calm down and come here, sit on the bench.”
No more than 45 seconds later, more shots rang out.
“I just ducked a bit down, I was trying to reach Reese to hold her hand. My friend pulled me by my arm because he saw that the guy was aiming (at) Resse and me. They were trying to shoot us,” Demircan said Thursday, his right elbow still covered with a bandage.
“While (Reese) was in front of him she got hit three or four times.”
With a friend pulling him away and no time to think, Demircan says he ran away.
“While I am running I fell down. The bullet grazed (me) and I thought I was hit.”
“I hid myself in front of an SUV, and my friend Mehmet saw me. I turned back to the scene and I saw Reese lying there with people trying to do CPR.”
Fallon was pronounced dead at the scene a short time later.
Demircan says he has been racked with guilt ever since.
“I feel guilty that I couldn’t help that girl. Since that day, whenever I close my eyes I keep thinking that her face is coming into my eyes and I can’t stop myself from thinking what could I do differently, what could I do to save her. She’s so young.”
Fallon was expected to attend a nursing program at McMaster University in the fall and one of her former teachers said she aspired to become a mental health nurse.
On Monday, 10-year-old Julianna Kozis was identified as the second victim of the shooting. Thirteen other people suffered gunshot wounds that night.
Police arriving on scene engaged the shooter, 29-year-old Faisal Hussain, in a gunfight in the area of Danforth Avenue and Bowden Street. He was found dead a short distance away.
On Wednesday, a family source told CTV News Hussain died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was buried by his family on Wednesday.
At one point Demircan said he was close enough to hear Hussain speak as he fired shots at people.
“He was yelling f*** you all, you’re all going to die.”
Hussain’s family along with teachers and others who knew him have said publicly that he suffered from severe mental health challenges.
Since the shooting, Demircan said he attended the vigil at the scene on Wednesday night, and plans to do more.
I just want to be strong and honour these people who were lost,” he said, adding going to Logan and Danforth at night was a regular activity for him and his friends prior to the shooting.
“I am going to go (to the scene) every night at 9:30 p.m. and get my coffee from Tim Hortons and I am going to stay there and I am going to pray for their souls. I will still be there.”
