With tears in their eyes, many family and friends of Jannai Dopwell-Bailey took part in a walk on Saturday afternoon to pay tribute to the 16-year-old, who was stabbed to death on October 18 in front of his school in the Côte neighborhood. -of snow.
Escorted by police cars, at most a hundred demonstrators marched down Avenue Van Horne shortly after 3 p.m. towards Martin-Luther-King Park, after first meeting in front of the school. Coronation, near Plamondon metro station. In the basement of this one that Jannai was studying in the Mile End Program, intended for dropout students. It is also in front of this building that the teenager was stabbed to death six weeks ago when an altercation arose between several young people at the end of the classes.
“I sleep, I think of my son. I wake up in the morning, I think of my son. It’s like a roller coaster. Morning, evening, night, I think of Jannai, ”Jannai’s mother, Charla Dopwell, told media gathered in front of the school on Saturday afternoon. With tears in her eyes, she described the pain she feels every day, every time she looks at her son’s empty bedroom.
“What I want is for people to know that my son was a loving child. And what happened to her there, if it was someone else who had been in her shoes, he would have come and helped her, ”she said.
But beyond the sadness, it is also “the anger” that inhabits the mother of a family. “My son was murdered like an animal,” Ms. Dopwell lamented. She thus claims that “justice” be done for her son. In recent weeks, the Montreal Police Department has arrested two young men who have been charged with second degree murder in connection with this case.
“We just want the violence to stop and our children to be able to go to school without the parents being afraid that it might be the last time they see their son or daughter”, for his part said the deceased’s older brother, Tyrese Dopwell-Bailey. The latter described Jannai as passionate about music – he was about to learn the piano – but also rap and dance.
“It’s really difficult and painful. I look in his room every day and I have to accept that he won’t come back to see me, ”said Ms. Dopwell.
After initially deploring the lack of attention paid by politicians to the death of her son in recent weeks, the mother was finally met Thursday by the mayoress of Montreal, Valérie Plante. The chosen one came to her home and gave her flowers. “The meeting went well,” Jannai’s mother said, without going into details.
“He was really loved”
Sadness could be read on the faces of many relatives present at this demonstration on Saturday afternoon, despite the cold and the snow. Several friends of the deceased took part in this event, blue balloons in hand. Among them was Naomi, a 15-year-old who describes herself as Jannai’s girlfriend.
“He had dreams and goals and his life was taken from him too quickly. We should always keep his name alive and remember him as he was: a good person, ”she whispered to the To have to. The teenager, who preferred to keep her last name silent, says she no longer feels safe in her neighborhood since Jannai’s death.
In the opinion of several demonstrators we met, an improvement in the cultural and sports activities offered to young people in the Côte-des-Neiges district is necessary in order to reduce crime there.
“There is nothing for young people here. They are in the street. And in the street, they are stopped by the police for no reason ”, particularly lamented Charla Dopwell.
Present at this event, the mayor of Côte-des-Neiges – Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Gracia Kasoki Katahwa, said she wanted to tackle this issue. In front of the crowd, she promised to join the various organizations “which work with young people in prevention” in order to see what could be done to improve the services offered in the borough.
“I want to make sure that young people have things to do after school, that they have positive leaders who take care of them. This is one of the means to be taken to ensure that they are protected, ”she said.
Jannai Dopwell-Bailey became on October 18 the 25th homicide victim in Montreal since the beginning of the year. Since then, that tally has climbed to 32 murder victims in the metropolis.