Family friend identifies teen killed in shooting outside Mississauga building

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – A teenage boy who died after gunfire erupted outside an apartment complex west of Toronto over the weekend was a caring and responsible sibling who loved playing video games, a family friend said Monday as she tried to raise money for his burial.

Selma Alincy has started an online fundraising campaign to help Jonathan Davis’s family make funeral arrangements for the 17-year-old, a high school student who she said was also learning the electrical trade.

“My friend found her son’s lifeless body on the ground outside of her complex. This is something no parent should ever bear witness to. That day will forever remain in her memories,” she wrote on the fundraiser website.

Davis was on his way to his father’s home Saturday but doubled back to change his shoes, she wrote. That’s when the shots rang out and Davis was hit by a bullet outside his home, she said.

“This situation is extremely unfortunate. If he didn’t turn back to go into the house, all of this wouldn’t have happened.”

As of early afternoon Monday, the campaign had raised more than $4,500, with the target set at $15,000.

Police have not publicly identified the teen killed in the shooting but have described him as an innocent bystander.

Five others were wounded in the incident, including a 13-year-old girl, a 16-year-old boy and two other 17-year-old boys.

Peel Regional Police are still looking for at least seven suspects who they say descended on the area surrounding an apartment complex in Mississauga, Ont., firing semi-automatic handguns indiscriminately.

Spokeswoman Const. Heather Cannon said investigators are still canvassing the area and appealing for information on the incident.

Three of the people injured have been released from hospital, she said, and the other two are now considered in stable condition.

Meanwhile, students at the school Davis attended were being offered additional supports Monday as they grappled with the death of one of their own.

The Peel District School Board said Davis was a Grade 12 student at Lincoln M. Alexander Secondary School, in the Malton area of Mississauga.

The school’s flag was at half-mast Monday in Davis’s honour and a memorial table was set up so that grieving students and staff could leave messages for his family, said spokesman Ryan Reyes.

“It’s definitely a sombre atmosphere at the school, of course, because of the tragic incident that happened over the weekend,” he said.

Members of the board’s Critical Incident Response Team were at the school Monday to support both staff and students and will remain there as long as they’re needed, he said.

A number of students have visited the area where the social workers are set up, Reyes said, but he could not say how many had availed themselves of the support.

– With files from Paola Loriggio in Toronto

Liam Casey, The Canadian Press