Boy Dies Defending Girl (Youth Violence Steals A Hero!)

DREW STEWART died defending a pregnant friend from a group of thugs in a restaurant where he was playing pool, his grieving mom said yesterday. "He would defend anybody," said Cheryl Stewart, wiping tears from her swollen eyes.

"That's why he had so many friends, because he would do anything for them. He was my hero and my best friend."

The 16-year-old was pronounced dead at St. Michael's hospital after being stabbed outside a Coxwell Ave. restaurant, south of O'Connor Dr., around 1:30 p.m. Friday.

Moments after her only child was taken away in an ambulance, Stewart got the phone call every parent dreads. "His friend told his mom and she called me at work," she said.

She rushed to the hospital but Drew's injuries were too severe. He was already dead.

Now she's hoping anyone with information about her son's killing will call the police and not seek their own revenge.

Drew, who celebrated his birthday last month, was a popular kid who enjoyed all sports, but especially liked playing basketball.

His mom said she will miss watching his games with the high school basketball team, and watching him play in the backyard with his friends.

He also played at the local community centre, where last year he was knocked unconscious defending a 12-year-old who was being beaten up, she said.

More than 100 of his friends turned up at Stewart's home late Friday to swap stories of his life and light candles in his memory.

They showed up again yesterday and added to a growing shrine of candles, pictures and flowers under a tree on the family's front lawn. Stewart says it's a sign of just how popular he was.

"As long as I have them, I will always have a piece of him. His friends meant so much to him."

There was so much sadness in the family's home yesterday, even Drew's dog Tie, named after the Maple Leaf Tie Domi, sat staring out the window, waiting for his buddy to come home.

"I used to say to him, 'Where's Drew?' and he'd go to the window," Stewart said. "He misses him already."

After the stabbing, students at East York Collegiate, where Drew attended Grade 10, were locked in their classrooms while police scoured the neighbourhood for suspects.

One of the assailants was seen fleeing the area with a pool cue. Police later found a pool cue not far from the restaurant.

The girls Drew was defending told his mom that there were more than 15 assailants who attacked him.

Stewart said she doesn't understand why kids these days feel the need to arm themselves.

"They think they need weapons for protection, but if you don't have them, you can't use them," she said.

Anyone with information can call homicide detectives at 416-808-7408, or 416-808-7814. Anonymous callers can contact Crime Stoppers at 416-222-TIPS (8477).

The papers are all over the place on the details. They can't even agree on his age but here are some more details.

From The National Post
TORONTO -- An 18-year-old man was stabbed to death near an east-end school yesterdayin an apparent swarming, after hiding from a group of assailants in a fast-food restaurant. Police were called to an area near Coxwell Avenue and Plains Road just after 1 p.m., where the fatally wounded man was found on the sidewalk near the East York Collegiate Institute. The victim was pronounced dead at St. Michael's Hospital. Staff Sergeant Noel Lee said Emergency Task Force officers and the dog unit searched an area near the Don Valley Parkway yesterday afternoon, but no suspects had been apprehended. "There were a number of people there, whether they were involved in the altercation I don't know," he said. A number of witnesses spoke to police, he said, but there is no clear picture of who was involved or how the dispute started. Sgt. Lee said police were not releasing the victim's name until his family had been notified and did not know if the young man was a student at the school.

From The Toronto Star
There was a chilling message yesterday among the candles, flowers, stuffed animals and letters of condolence at the makeshift memorial for a teen who was stabbed to death near his east-end high school Friday. "I swear I'm (sic) get those (expletive) that got you," read the signed note lying on the police chalk markings and blood-spattered sidewalk outside the Thai Fusion Restaurant, just north of East York Collegiate Institute. The 16-year-old victim had collapsed there after getting involved in a fight with up to 15 teens, who witnesses say were armed with hockey sticks and pool cues. The eatery remains closed, as does the Mars restaurant a few doors north, where the events leading up to the tragedy began. Police said Andrew Stewart was playing pool with friends at 1025 Coxwell Ave. on Friday when 10 to 15 males entered the restaurant around 1 p.m. A fight broke out soon after. Stewart, who was attacked by members of the group, fled the eatery and ran for his life south on Coxwell before several suspects caught up with him a few stores down the road. He was stabbed repeatedly in the chest and left bleeding to death on the sidewalk. Police have recovered no weapons and the motive remains unknown. Friends of Stewart who hugged and cried and prayed at the crime scene yesterday said the youth may have been defending a female friend who was attacked by a young male inside Mars. They also believe the attack on him had a racial undertone. "It's just about race," said Teka Gillis, 18, who'd once dated Stewart "for a few days." "I can't believe he's dead, over nothing. He was so young." The victim, who had turned 16 a couple of weeks ago, was also being remembered at his house near Main St. and Lumsden Ave. Family and friends gathered near another makeshift memorial of flowers, candles and pictures set up under a tree in the front yard. Family pictures and dark blue bandanas were tied to the tree's branches. "We were supposed to buy a Christmas tree today ... there will be no Christmas in the house this year ... there will be no Christmas," Stewart's grieving mother Cheryl said as she stared at the memorial. A friend of Stewart's who goes by the nickname Century Sam and wore a bandana similar to those hung on the tree, said Stewart was an avid basketball player and a caring person. "There has been violence before in that neighbourhood, but I never thought it is going to hit someone close to me," he said. Mike Hamilton, manager of the Gamezclub across the street from the crime scene, called the incident "a reflection of the downfall of the neighbourhood because of drugs and gangs." "It's grown from a little bit of nonsense to full-out conflict," Hamilton said. "I know there are people selling drugs around here. And my customers used to feel safe walking here, now they insist their parents drive them." At the same time he's fairly certain that Stewart, whom he knew by sight and saw lying on the ground bleeding during his final moments, was not affiliated with a gang. "You have all these kids — white, Spanish, Tamil, Afghanis, Albanians, black — hanging out together and mostly they're not in a gang, they're just friends." Local councillor Janet Davis has spoken with police and school officials, who are planning to make a trauma team available at the high school next week. "There have been concerns expressed by some in the community about the great numbers of students that go out into the community at lunch in significant numbers," said Davis (Ward 31, Beaches-East York). "There have been concerns about some inappropriate activity around the lunch hour, but fighting has not been an issue that has been prevalent." Davis said police had proposed increasing their presence in the area at midday.

In Canada's politically-correct world, I am having a hard time getting a profile on Toronto's gangs. But from checking many, many websites and reading between the lines, my guess is...

Toronto's gangs are mostly black? Seem to be Jamaican or Somali? Although perhaps Philipino as well. Most of the shootings are black men killing other black men in gang wars. The skyrocketing crime is black on black.

The gangs have no fear of the law because their is a revolving door policy that puts them back on the street so fast. Call Toronto "soft on crime".

The gangs have all the handguns they need despite Canada's draconian laws prohibiting law-abiding citizens from owning and carrying guns. This may be one of the reasons the gangs have so little fear, then KNOW their victims are disarmed.

So its not hard to imagine the scene - 15 Somali or Jamaican gang-members, hardened by turf wars over drugs hassle some "fat" white girl and when a young man steps in to defend her, he gets drilled by one of the gang punks to show his homies how bad he is.

Isn't cultural diversity wonderful? I mean, every culture you go to, where you have these populations of black/hispanic/muslim groups you get poverty, high crime, gangs and violence.

Not to sound racist, I mean the vast majority of all blacks, hispanics and muslims are NOT criminals, and are decent people not much different from you or me. But for some reason, these groups always carry with them a portion of violent thugs that ruin any community that blacks/hispanics/muslims settle into to. It really is a shame because it gives the rest of them a bad name, which is patently unfair.

I simply wish we could do 2 things, make gang affiliation a crime, and put the punks in jail and throw away the key. Or let everyone carry a gun and make it legal to protect your property with lethal force. Then maybe the gang members will know a little healthy fear.

This is crap! I will NEVER EVER be happy until a single woman can walk down any street in America at midnight without fear. Until then, I say keep building prisons, fill them to the brim and get rid of all the vermin that can't function in civilized society. Including these multi-cultural gangland punks.

Now beware that I have made many assumptions in my post. But it is only because Canadian Political correctness makes it impossible to figure out the true facts about the ethnicity of the gangs and criminals in Toronto.

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