Outside the Toronto apartment building on Keele Street near Sheppard Avenue, where 15 -year-old Shalldon Samuda, his four brothers and parents have lived for many years, sits a colourful makeshift memorial of flowers, balloons, candles and notes.
“I never thought I’d be having to do this for you. I will always remember your smile. #LongliveShalldon,” wrote one friend on a silver mylar balloon.
The boy’s father also never thought he would be saying goodbye to a child. Standing outside the apartment building where he raised his family, Harlie Samuda spoke softly about his the fact a young man his sons’ called “a friend” is now wanted in relation to the fatal shooting of his second youngest child.
“We’re going to get him. And when we get him, we’re going to get him good,” said Harlie, speaking about the teenager now accused of killing his son.
On the afternoon of Sunday, Sept. 10, Toronto police homicide detectives released a photo of 18-year-old Ellion Brown, the suspect wanted for the fatal shooting of Shalldon in the early hours of that morning. Police were called to the family’s seventh-floor apartment on Friday night around 12:40 a.m., where they found the 15-year-old Grade 10 student from C.W. Jefferys Collegiate with a gunshot wound to his head.
He was rushed to the SickKids Hospital and later died.
Harlie says Shalldon and his 16-year-old brother were sitting on the balcony with a friend when he and his wife heard what sounded like gunshots around 12:30 am. “We hear bang, bang, bang,” Harlie said causing him to run into the living room where he found his older son on the phone. “His brother was in the living room and he was jumping up and down, ‘Oh they kill my bro, they kill my bro'”, Harlie recalled.
He said he went out to the balcony to find Shalldon with a bullethole through his head, laying back in a chair, unresponsive. A handgun was lying on the ground, along with a magazine and bullet casings”.
Harlie said his 15-year-old son’s hands were limp, he was bleeding from the head and a call was made to 911. While his wife ran outside, breaking down in tears, Harlie says he was in shock and couldn’t cry, wondering where his sons’ friend was. He says he saw a handgun lying on the balcony, with a cartridge and spent bullets nearby, but the friend was nowhere to be found.
“Once the shots (were) fired, he dropped it and away he went. My big son said, ‘Daddy, I thought he was going to shoot me but he didn’t,'” Harlie explained.
Shalldon was rushed to SickKids Hospital where he was pronounced dead. Meanwhile, the family is planning a funeral, still in shock that someone brought a gun into their home.
“He wasn’t a friend. He was an enemy. How does an 18-year-old get a gun? Where does he get it from? Who distributed it? And it ends up in my apartment,” said Harlie, clearly perplexed.
The Toronto District School Board sent a letter home to parents at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Monday calling the murder of the grade ten student a senseless act of violence. “Shalldon was deeply loved by his peers and had many friends. He was known for his strong sense of justice and loyalty to his friends,” it read.
Counsellors are on hand to help students dealing with grief.
The family says there will be nightly candlelight vigils in memory of the 15-year-old until his funeral, including one on Wednesday night at the Brookwell basketball court where Shalldon used to play.
Friends have also set up a GoFundMe campaign to assist with funeral costs.