‘They weren’t fast enough to dodge the bullet’: Mother of girls shot at Toronto playground speaks out

The mother of three young girls who were shot while at an east-end Toronto playground is joining with other community advocates in pleading for action to address gun violence.

Stacey King, a self-employed author and aspiring public speaker, told Global News on Monday that it was a beautiful afternoon on June 14 when her daughters asked to go to a playground by their home in the Alton Towers Circle area, which is near McCowan Road and Steeles Avenue East.

“I was in my house and I heard the gunshots and immediately the neighbour came ringing the doorbell to tell me my daughter has been shot,” King said.

“My kids were trying to run and they weren’t fast enough to dodge the bullet. They hit two of my girls and grazed one of my daughters.”

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King’s five-year-old daughter was shot in the stomach and was rushed to hospital in critical condition.

King’s nine-year-old daughter was also seriously injured after she was shot in her right leg. Her daughter was hospitalized for two weeks.

Both girls are now at home and attending physiotherapy as well as counselling. King’s seven-year-old daughter also received minor injuries after she was grazed by a bullet.

A suspect has been charged in connection with the shooting and two suspects are still wanted by police.

King, a mother of eight who has lived in the neighbourhood for 11 years, recalled the haunting words echoed by one of her daughters in the moments after the shooting. She said the incident has deeply impacted her family.

“My daughter kept saying she wants to sleep, ‘Am I go going to die?’ I said, ‘No … you’re going to live,’” she said.

“The whole family is traumatized, even my kids who weren’t there … If they hear fireworks, they think it’s gunshots. They do not go in the playground to play.”

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On Monday, King and advocates from organizations such as Community for Zero Violence and the Zero Gun Violence Movement, attended a Toronto Board of Health meeting as staff were scheduled to provide an update on an upcoming research project into the root causes of community violence.

“I have to be strong for my girls. The reason I came here is because I want to be a strong advocate against guns and violence,” King said, adding it feels like the gun violence situation is “getting worse.”

“We have to come to a conclusion on how to solve this and how to put an end to this. I’m not saying that it’s going to happen overnight, but it takes a village to raise a child — it takes a village to come together and put a stop to this as much as they can.”

READ MORE: Toronto officer sends email calling out mayor over gun violence

King called for more community-based resources for neighbourhoods, more jobs and programs for youth, trades jobs for people in jail as well as education on violence-related issues for youth as early as Grade 3.

No matter what the final solution is, she said it can’t just be extra police.

“They need to do more than having cops in communities. That’s just going to be a war, it’s going to be a fight.”

The update at the Board of Health comes days after Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders and Mayor John Tory announced a gun violence reduction plan at the service’s headquarters.

Saunders said on Thursday that up to $3 million would be spent to have around 200 extra officers on select days between 7 p.m. and 3 a.m. for an eight-week period, starting later this week.

Tory said the City of Toronto has applied to the federal government to ramp up crime prevention and youth programs at a cost of approximately $12 million.