Teen says he tried to save victim's life after shooting in Mississauga
A teenager, who tried to help a man shot and killed in Mississauga, says he’s been having night terrors since the incident.
The male victim was shot repeatedly and killed late Wednesday night in the alleyway of a co-op complex in the Glen Erin Drive and Britannia Road West area in Mississauga.
The teenager told CTV News Toronto he saw a car cruising slowly through the complex while out for a walk at around 10 p.m. A volley of gunfire pierced through the air, swift like fireworks, he said.
“I seen this girl when I ran through the middle [of the buildings], she was saying she was scared to go near the body,” he recalled, saying she pointed to a man face down on the ground of the alleyway.
He flipped the man over to discover it was the father of one of his friends, he said.
“I started freaking out,” he said, as he started trying to cover up and put pressure on the bullet wounds around the man’s body. “And [tried to] stop as much bleeding as I could.”
He says he ran to get the man’s wife and children, but he felt the man was already lost.
“I [didn’t] want to say that, and then when the paramedics took over, they said he had succumbed to his injuries,” he said. “That’s when we all start crying.”
“I just tried to do the best I could,” he said in an interview along with his mother, who requested her son not be identified for his safety.
The teenager said the family was left distraught, and the experience has been traumatizing.
“The little kids [were] watching their dad die […] I’m still going through a lot. I could barely sleep last night. I’m having night terrors and stuff. I just can't deal with it.”
The latest incident is the 18th murder reported in Peel Region this year.
With Brampton and Mississauga on pace for a record number of homicides in a year, this young witness told CTV News Toronto he wanted his neighbour, who has yet to be publicly identified, to be remembered as a good man.
“He has kids, he has a wife, he has a whole family,” he said. “You don’t deserve to lose your life; you don’t deserve to leave this world if it wasn’t your time.”
Other witnesses reported hearing a string a shots, around a dozen, in the neighbourhood that night.
“I fell off the bed scared and ran to my sister’s room, and told them I heard some shots,” said Joanne Joseph.
"Our neighbourhood is a very nice neighbourhood, and lately it has just been a lot of crimes and shots and stuff like that," she said.
“He was very nice, very cooperative, very frank,” said Ram Chhetri, the complex property manager, saying the victim and his wife were on the co-op board and had lived in the complex for several years.
Chhetri said the shooter was seen on security footage with his face covered. The footage has been handed over to police for review.
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