Several dozen people gathered on Saturday in front of Coronation School, in the Côte-des-Neiges area, where 16-year-old Jannai Dopwell-Bailey died after being stabbed last October.
The group wanted to pay a last tribute to the teenager. The citizens, clutching a blue balloon in their hands, then walked to Martin-Luther King Park.
“I sent my son to school, and he never came back. And I have to deal with that every morning when I wake up and look at her bedroom, ”said the teenager’s mother, Charla Dopwell, with emotion. ” I miss him. I sleep, I eat, I breathe and I think about Jannai, ”she added.
On October 18, Jannai Dopwell-Bailey was stabbed outside Coronation School at the intersection of Victoria and Van Horne avenues, where he was studying in the Mile End Program, for dropout students. An altercation took place between young people aged 16 to 18 before the tragedy.
PHOTO SARAH MONGEAU-BIRKETT, PRESS ARCHIVES
A candlelight vigil to honor Jannai Dopwell-Bailey was held on October 22.
A young person who accompanied the victim took refuge in the school to ask for help. Jannai was pronounced dead in hospital.
In the aftermath of the murder, videos were posted on social media, where hooded youths could be seen, with expensive ones, who ridiculed the teenager’s death.
According to information obtained by Press, a conflict between two cliques, that is to say the OXB (Oxford Block) of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and the 160 of Côte-des-Neiges, would be at the origin of the tragedy.
Jannai Dopwell-Bailey was posting his membership of Clique 160 on social media, but he was not a member of a street gang, and was not known to the police.
Two suspects have been arrested in connection with this case, including a 16-year-old who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. He is being held because he has waived his release investigation. He appeared before the Youth Division of the Court of Quebec on October 22. The second suspect, Andrei Donet, 18, was arrested on November 26.
This murder is part of the outbreak of violence taking place in the streets of Montreal, which has claimed the lives of three other young people in recent months. Last Thursday, 20-year-old Hani Ouahdi succumbed to his injuries after being shot in the Anjou sector. A few weeks earlier, on November 14, Thomas Trudel was shot dead in the Saint-Michel district. In February, 15-year-old Meriem Boundaoui died after being shot in the Saint-Léonard area.
With Mayssa Ferah, Press