‘I feel sick’: Mother of 2016 murder victim reacts to spate of shootings in Toronto

Kelly Whetter waters the tree planted in her son’s honour in Bickford Park where he used to walk his dog.

“He was feisty, he had lots of personality, he knew a lot of people and it was telltale with the funeral, sadly. I couldn’t believe how many people were there,” she told Global News on Wednesday. “I can’t even believe I can say that 26 months later without crying.”

Her son, 18-year-old Gabriel Nikov, was gunned down near Yonge and Bloor streets in April 2016.

“There was a 10-second altercation and my son punched this guy,” she described calmly. “There were words, he punched him and there were words and he left.”

“But this 22-year-old man had a fully loaded semi-automatic gun in his pocket and shot my son in his back six times.”

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Nikov was a student at Central Toronto Academy with hopes of attending business school.

“He was very handsome; he could have done anything,” she said.

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As Whetter reminisced about her son, she cringed, thinking about all the other families who have lost loved ones during this recent spate of shootings in Toronto.

READ MORE: Man injured after drive-by shooting at King and Portland, Toronto police say

“I actually feel sick to my stomach, it makes me nauseous,” she said. “I stay at home a lot where it’s safe.”

So far in 2018 there have been 52 murders in Toronto, and nearly half have been shooting deaths that have spanned across the city.

“It’s a combination of a whole bunch of things involving guns and drugs and gang activities, turf wars, retaliation and stuff we have to take off the streets,” Toronto Mayor John Tory said this week.

She said she worries a lot these days and admitted she is a different person since losing her son.

“It stays with you forever. There’s no such thing as closure or things get[ting] better. Sure, you have days where you might laugh, but it’s intermittent with your sadness.”

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“I think about all the people devastated. The parents, if there’s siblings, the community,” she said.

And each time she hears about yet another incident of gun violence, she remembers her own son, who was robbed of the chance to realize his dreams.

“He loved music,” Whetter recalled. “A lot of young guys like the hip-hop and rap but he was very good and he did some stuff in the recording studio already. A lot of people liked his stuff. He was an artist, an animal lover.”