Mourners gathered at Hamilton Mountain Masjid on Monday to say goodbye to Nabil Askafe, the 16-year-old boy who was fatally shot inside Jackson Square on Friday.
“I’m still trying to understand how someone can be here one day and gone the next. It doesn’t feel real. I’m still trying to process it,” one of the teen’s friends said following the Janazah, the Islamic funeral service and burial.
One woman at the mosque remembered Askafe as a friendly and kind boy, who had “big dreams” for the future.
“He wanted to travel during summertime,” she told CTV News Toronto.
Friends said the teen’s family immigrated to Canada from Syria about a decade ago in search of a new start in a peaceful country.
Askafe was a student at Hamilton’s Westdale Secondary School.
Several of his classmates and friends attended his funeral service.
Hamilton’s Mayor Andrea Horwath was also there to offer her sympathy and support to the boy’s devastated family.
“It’s important to be here to mourn the loss of a young life that was taken far too soon in a violent situation that should never happen in a city like ours, in any city,” she said.
Another woman, who also attended the service, urged parents to find out where their child is and find out how they can get their hands on a gun, and to know their friends, so that tragedies like these can hopefully be prevented.
Shooting happened inside Jackson Square
During a news conference on Saturday afternoon, police provided more details about what happened.
Det. Robert Di Ianni said on Friday, at around 5 p.m., gunfire rang out inside Jackson Square, near the Himalayan restaurant.
He said the victim and two males, one of whom remains unidentified and is still outstanding, had an interaction near the shopping centre.
They then got into an altercation inside the mall prior to the shooting, Di Ianni said.
After being shot multiple times, the detective said Askafe was able walked about 100 feet to a mobile phone store where he collapsed and was located by emergency responders a short time later. He was rushed to the hospital but did not survive.
The two males, meanwhile, fled the area on foot.
On Saturday, investigators also identified a 14-year-old boy who was wanted for second-degree murder in connection with this homicide. Hours later, Hamilton Police Service obtained a court order and released his name and photo. The youth turned himself in the following night.
Di Ianni said they believe the accused carried a concealed firearm “larger than a handgun” that was used in the shooting.
The investigation is ongoing.
Anyone who was involved in this fatal shooting or anyone who may have witnessed it is being urged to contact Det. Matt Drumm at 905-546-3865 or Crime Stoppers anonymously.
With files from CTV News Toronto’s John Musselman
