Friends are remembering two young shooting victims as active members of their respective communities.
Shyanne Charles, 14, and Joshua Yasay, 23, were shot and killed Monday night during a summer block party in Toronto’s east-end.
Charles: Avid basketball player
Around 150 people gathered outside a high rise in the Kingston-Galloway area to remember Charles at a vigil on Monday evening.
The mourners put up posters commemorating the girl and placed flowers near the site of her death.
Friends remembered Charles as a fun-loving teen, avid basketball player and good student.
Friends at the vigil spoke out against the violence that claimed the teen’s life.
Distraught, they told CTV Toronto that Charles was an innocent bystander.
“She did nothing to anybody. She’s innocent. She’s just everything someone could dream for. I just want her to open her eyes again and come back,” said one friend.
They also spoke out against the violence that claimed her life.
“People feel the need to come here and start drama for no reason, start shooting guns because they want to be something cool -- they want to be remembered as something when really they’re nothing,” said one friend who spoke to reporters but declined to give her name.
“They took away someone that we can never get back. I feel that this should have not happened at all,” she added.
Earlier in the day, details of Charles’ life began to surface through various social networks even before police formally identified her.
A Twitter account was linked to Charles shortly after the shooting, with several friends and Twitter users sending messages of condolences to the account.
“To the beautiful young lady that passed, may you have eternal life in heaven,” tweeted one user.
An outpouring of grief for Charles was also expressed on the popular networking site through a series of tweets.
The hashtags #prayforshyanne and #RIPShyanneCharles were trending Monday afternoon.
“Life is too short,” wrote one user.
“My deepest condolences goes out to Shyanne's Family, stay strong. Rip. ♥,” wrote another.
A photo collage of the young teen was making the rounds, being tweeted and retweeted by those who knew her, as well as those who didn’t.
On the collage was written simply “R.I.P. Shyanne C.”
Yasay: Aspired to be police officer
Those who knew and worked with Yasay say he was an active member of his community who wanted to work against the very violence that claimed his life.
The Ajax native had recently graduated from York University with a degree in criminology, which he hoped to use to pursue a career as a police officer.
Besides working as a security guard, he also worked at an Ajax barber shop that he helped open nine months ago.
Yasay worked at the Goodfellas Barber Lounge with friend and co-owner Michael Allicock.
Allicock told CTV Toronto that Yasay was just starting the next phase of his life.
“He didn’t trouble anyone, always laughing caring, positive, basically just graduated school,” said Allicock. “He was just trying to make a life -- start a life basically.”
Yasay was also an active volunteer in his community.
For two years he volunteered with the Learning Disabilities Association of Toronto, in a program designed to encourage youth to focus on sport and academics.
Katie Bushie, a program manager at the association, told CTVNews.ca that she will remember Yasay as a dedicated and caring volunteer.
Yasay acted as a basketball coach for youth with learning disabilities during an after-school program. Yasay volunteered more than 400 hours at the centre and was a “volunteer dream come true.”
Bushie said she was planning on offering Yasay a paid position starting in September because she was so impressed with his work.
He told her that he didn’t know if he could accept the pay, saying he “wouldn’t feel right,” said Bushie.
“He said you should be paying the youth for having to deal with me,” recalled Bushie.
She said Yasay was such a dedicated volunteer because “he wanted to give back to the community.”
With a report from CTV Toronto’s John Musselman and Zuraidah Alman
