No Matter How Hard The Left Wing Trys........

......they will have to accept most of the responsibility for not getting tough on street gangs. All the money spent on "at risk" youth, basketball courts, summer job programs, etc. etc. and the work of the Toronto Police has not done the job. It is a poor memorial for Jane!

2nd Anniversary Of Jane Creba Shooting Shows Few Lessons Have Been Learned

Wednesday December 26, 2007

CityNews.ca Staff

It was the last straw in a long line of terrible last straws. And it changed this city forever. But have we made any progress since 2005's trail of blood?

It was exactly two years ago that the very last victim of Toronto's Year Of the Gun met a tragic end in the most unthinkable of places - the Boxing Day crowds on the Yonge St. strip.

Jane Creba was out with her family doing the same thing thousands of others were attempting just after 5pm that day - hunting for bargains. But no one bargained on the violence that would take her life.

As the 15-year-old stood outside a shoe store near Yonge and Dundas, shots rang out from all directions. By the time their echo had subsided along the busy route, six people lay wounded and Creba was dead.

She became the second youngest victim of a year filled with senseless gun violence - a drive-by shooting that wounded four-year-old Shaquan Cadougan in August 2005 marked the most innocent of all the victims - and a symbol that things had to change.

Police believe a war between rival gangs was behind the terrible incident, and they were appalled at the lack of concern for where the battle took place. Security video from the nearby Eaton Centre would later show some of those authorities suspected were responsible, and the incident may have been sparked by something as stupid as an argument over a cell phone that occurred in the mall.

Eight people were eventually charged directly in the terrible crime. Others were accused of drugs and weapons offences. The killing of the popular Grade 10 student was the impetus for police to put together a Guns and Gangs Task Force and things were quieter in 2006.

But they rebounded in a tragic way this year - including the murder of one person who had ties to the infamous case.

Twenty-one year-old Eric Boateng was rounded up in a gang sweep of Creba suspects and was facing weapons and drug charges. But he would never stand trial after being fatally shot following a visit to an inmate at the Don Jail in October. Police believe he was deliberately set up for murder and that his killers were waiting for him when he emerged.

And there were other victims in 2007, innocent pawns in a game they didn't even know they were playing. One was Jordan Manners, who became the first youngster ever killed inside a Toronto school when he was gunned down in a hallway at C.W. Jefferys C.I. in late May.

Ephraim Brown was even younger. The 11-year-old suffered fatal gunshot wounds in July after attending a cousin's birthday party near Jane and Sheppard. Cops theorize the boy lost his life when unconcerned rival gang members began shooting wildly at each other on the street.

The groups police pledged to eradicate were back with a deadly vengeance in 2007, and there have now been two more murders this year than there were back then - and many are believed associated with gang colours.

The number of gun crimes for the year stands at 40, still not quite on par with the 52 weapon-related homicides that gave 2005 its infamous moniker. But the total number of killings overall is up. There were 80 during our gun year. We're heading towards New Year's Eve with 82.

The lessons taught by the slaying of the Riverdale student that terrible December 26th afternoon are many. But the violent year that will end next week suggests we may not have learned them very well at all.