One of the shooting victims of convicted killer Tyshaun Riley is speaking out after the criminal was allowed to leave prison last week to attend his father’s funeral in Toronto.
“I just think that was appalling,” Leonard Bell – one of Riley’s shooting victims -- told CTV Toronto Tuesday. “I think it was a total disregard for his victims and total waste of taxpayers’ money.”
Riley, who has been serving a life sentence in federal prison in Quebec, is the former leader of the Galloway Boys gang. Twelve years ago, in March 2004, Riley shot Bell nine times at the intersection of Finch Avenue and Neilson Road -- and four bullets still remain in Bell’s lung.
“Everything I do -- I breathe, I walk, I try to work -- the pain is there constantly,” Bell said, who works as a renovator.
Despite the chronic pain, he still considers himself lucky. Brendon Charlton, who was inside the vehicle with Bell, did not survive the shooting.
At the time, the Galloway Boys were at war with the Malvern Crew, a rival gang. Riley formed a violent hit squad that drove around the Malvern area, indiscriminately shooting at anyone who looked like a gangbanger.
In the process, many innocent people were shot. Charlton and Bell were hard-working family men with no connection to gangs.
When Riley’s father died, he was granted a day pass and was escorted to a Jerrett Funeral Home in Toronto on Thursday by heavily armed police.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau touched on the matter during a funding announcement in Barrie Tuesday morning, saying he would not “second guess” the decision to allow Riley to attend the funeral.
“I think that politicians, federal politicians, don’t meddle with the process of our independent judiciary,” he said.
“I have a lot of faith in the judiciary to make the right decisions,” said Wynne.
As a result of Charlton’s death, Toronto police initiated Project Pathfinder that resulted in new charges against alleged members of the east-end gang, former Police Chief Bill Blair told reporters at the time.
The project helped lay 108 charges against nine men who police believed were members of the Galloway Boys gang, Blair said.
In 2009, Riley and two others were found guilty of first-degree murder, attempted murder and participating in a criminal organization in connection with the 2004 shooting of Bell and Charlton. Riley was also facing two other first-degree murder charges, but the prosecution chose not to pursue the case.
The murder trial was said to be one of the most expensive street gang prosecutions in Canadian history, with the investigation lasting years. Two new courtrooms had to be built to meet security requirements.
With files from Austin Delaney
