Stephanie Johnston, late Adrian's mother
Prince Young, late Junior Appiah's brother
Clemee Joseph and Delores Watson, late Jarvis St Remy's mom and grandmom
Her son Adrian Johnston, shot and left to die in a field on May 11, would have turned 15 yesterday.
"Instead of celebrating his birthday, we're mourning his death," she said.
At a news conference yesterday at the St. Clair Ave. W. and Scarlett Rd. field where Adrian died, Johnston, along with friends, Adrian's grandmother and several other family members, made an emotional appeal for witnesses to the killing to come forward.
"The sick individual who took Adrian from us is still walking the streets," she said.
"Adrian is not able to do that. There are people out there who have the piece to this puzzle, but nobody's coming forward yet."
Family members and friends laid flowers at the site and donned blue T-shirts with Adrian's face on the front. By staying silent, witnesses are "enabling these murderers," Johnston said.
"Don't let them get away with this," she added. "It's not fair to the families."
For the first time since her son's death, Johnston described how she found out Adrian had been killed. After spotting police canvassing her neighbourhood that night in May, she said, she was concerned and went in search of Adrian, who hadn't arrived home on time.
After describing her only child to officers at the scene, just north of her apartment building, she was given the devastating news that the baby-faced teen under the tarp in a nearby field was her son.
Immediately after Adrian's funeral, Johnston moved into her parents' Welland home to escape the pain of living so close to where her son was murdered.
She also feared passing his killer on the street.
"Who knows? I might see that guy every day and not know it's him."
To keep Adrian's memory alive, the family has set up a scholarship at Runnymede Collegiate Institute.
The news conference set up by anti-crime advocate Kemi Olunloyo also featured appeals from relatives of two other victims of unsolved murders – Clemee Joseph, mother of Jarvis St. Remy, 18, and Prince Young, whose younger brother, 18-year-old Junior Appiah, was killed last September on a Jane and Finch basketball court.
Joseph said the reason Remy was gunned down at a Dundas St. W. and Scarlett Rd. bus stop is still a mystery. Remy was shot the week before Adrian's murder.
Source: The Toronto Star 8/15/09
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