Days after 19-year-old Firdous Nabizada died after a Halloween party fight in the city’s downtown that left several injured, he is being remembered as a talented soccer player who wanted to go to college.
“No parents want to see their son or daughter go away like that. It’s very hard for any parent, for his sisters, for his brothers, for all of his friends. This is a big loss for the soccer community, for the youth community — it’s huge,” Roain Satarzadeh, co-founder of the Canadian Afghan Sports Association (CASA), told Global News on Monday.
“I guess he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Officers and paramedics were called to a property on Madison Avenue, north of Bloor Street West and east of Spadina Road, just after 11:40 p.m. on Thursday with reports of a stabbing at a house party.
“A man became involved in an altercation. He produced a knife but was disarmed by other party-goers and ejected. He tried to re-gain entry to the house and became enraged,” police said in a statement Sunday afternoon.
“Other individuals tried to calm him down. He produced another knife and randomly attacked other individuals in line trying to get into the party.”
Nabizada made his way to hospital with the help of friends. He had critical injuries and later died. Three others were stabbed and two people sustained “other injuries” in the incident.
Nineteen-year-old Jacob Alves and a 15-year-old Richmond Hill girl, who can’t be identified due to the Youth Criminal Justice Act, were initially charged with attempted murder, dangerous weapons, three counts of aggravated assault and three counts of assault with a weapon. Alves’ charges were upgraded to second-degree murder.
Satarzadeh said Nabizada along with his family immigrated to Canada from Afghanistan in 2013. He said Nabizada went to Valley Park Middle School and Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute near Toronto’s Flemingdon Park neighbourhood.
“Our country has been dealing with the war and a lot of other bad stuff that we all tried to get away from for a better life.”
Satarzadeh said CASA scouted out and selected Nabizada to be part of an elite team that plays in the Ontario Soccer League.
“He was an amazing player. He was a solid defender, like every team would like to have a defender like him when it comes to talent,” he said, adding the athlete was also good at basketball.
While Nabizada was excelling on the soccer pitch, Satarzadeh said the 19-year-old was turning his attention to a future career.
“The first weekend of September we went to a tournament in Montreal and he was telling us on the way going there and coming back that he wants to start college and apply for that and play for the varsity team,” he recalled.
“He wanted to study civil engineering or anything related to construction engineering, and he just started his full-time job in construction business.”
Meanwhile, the police investigation into the incident continues. Anyone with information or video was asked to call police at 416-808-7400 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-8477.
— With files from Catherine McDonald
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