Mother says 17-year-old fatally shot at Toronto restaurant ‘will always be my baby’

As Delma Hagley looks through vacation and family photos of her 17-year-old son Jarryl, she said she wishes she could tell him that she loves him.

“He will always have a place in my heart. He will always be my baby. He will always be my number one and I wish I could somehow blow into his nostrils and bring him back to life,” Delma told Global News Sunday.

Jarryl was eating with a group of friends at the Pizza Pizza on Weston Road, just north of Lawrence Avenue West, around 1:40 a.m. when gunmen entered the store and fired shots in his direction.

Jarryl was struck and police found him in the restaurant’s back washroom shortly after arriving.

Trisha Samuels, Jarryl’s stepmother and Delma’s partner, said a neighbour knocked on their door saying he was shot at the restaurant near their home.

“We were not able to talk to anybody,” Samuels said. “Nobody was able to give us any information.”

“But I was able to see that they at least were pumping his chest to try and revive him. When we got to the hospital, they said he was already gone.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "But I was able to see that they at least were pumping his chest to try and revive him. When we got to the hospital, they said he was already gone."

Samuels said Jarryl was a Grade 10 student who liked sports, drawing and playing with his younger brothers. She said he frequently showed his love toward others.

“He was always going around giving hugs. All of a sudden you would feel someone around you – you wouldn’t know he was there – he just comes and hugs you,” she said.

The family has started a GoFundMe page to raise funds for Jarryl’s funeral.

Meanwhile, Toronto Police Service Det. Paul Worden called Sunday’s shooting “brazen.”

“It just goes to show you how brazen these shootings will be and how dangerous they can be that they’ve got no fear of witnesses (or) surveillance cameras,” he said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It just goes to show you how brazen these shootings will be and how dangerous they can be that they've got no fear of witnesses (or) surveillance cameras," he said.

WATCH: The number of shootings are up significantly in Toronto from last year. Allison Vuchnich reports. 

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“They’re just going to go out there and basically execute somebody like what happened in this case and they don’t care how many other people they hurt. It could have been worse in this case.”

He said police are looking into the backgrounds of the people involved to see if they could identify a motive for the shooting.

“We do believe this was a targeted case based on the information we have now. It’s not clear whether this particular youth was targeted, or somebody in his group was targeted.”

Worden said although Jarryl came into contact with police over the past couple of years for “various things,” he wasn’t charged with any offences and Jarryl didn’t have a criminal record.

Officers are also canvassing for witnesses and trying to obtain surveillance video in the area. A suspect description hasn’t been released.

Anyone with information is being asked to call Det. Paul Worden at 416-808-7400 ext. 7-7382 or 416-616-6994, or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-8477.

Erica Vella and Allison Vuchnich contributed to this report