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Jeffrey Reodica
A Hard Goodbye
May 29, 2004 from Pulse
24
A bright kid who could make
everyone laugh. That's how Jeffrey Reodica's friends remember
him. And it's why they were so heartbroken when they heard that
he died. That heartbreak was evident once again on Saturday at
the funeral for the 17-year-old, who was killed last week in
a confrontation with police.
"Definitely a big shock
to everybody. [Jeffrey was] very, very young [and was a] very,
very bright kid and had a great future ahead of him," laments
his friend Alexander Tan.
"The funniest guy. A great
person, always smiling, making jokes. He was always somebody
that you could talk to," offers pal Christian.
Those friends and others joined
Jeffrey's deeply distraught family Saturday morning at St. Rose
of Lima Church in Scarborough, where they all came out to pay
their last respects.
For Christian, the news of
his friend's death was surreal. "Why did he have to leave
so early? At first when I found out that he got shot, I didn't
believe it," he relates. "And it didn't really hit
me when he died until I went to the funeral home and saw him.
And I was just so shocked."
Meanwhile, teacher Christine
Hughes-Butler says her thoughts were with Jeffrey's friends and
classmates.
"They're 17, I don't know
how they're dealing with it," she offered. "I just
hope to God that they get through it."
Jeffrey met his untimely end
on May 21st. That was when 911 calls about about a swarming brought
police to the McCowan and Lawrence area of Scarborough. S.I.U.
investigators are now reviewing the events of that day, when
plainclothes officers were some of the first on the scene.
Through a statement, 41 Division
officers Dan Belanger and Al Love - both Detective Constables
- contend Reodica lashed out with a knife when police tried to
arrest him. But other witnesses say Reodica wasn't armed. He
was shot at least twice and was taken off life support three
days later.
Reodica's father and mother
have hired a lawyer and have indicated they plan to conduct their
own investigation into their son's death. They've also said they're
not ruling out a civil suit against Toronto police.
Slain teen's lawyer says
charges against Toronto police still a possibility
Andrew Flynn, Canadian Press,
September 30, 2004
TORONTO -- The door is still
open for criminal charges against a Toronto police constable
who shot a teenager to death, despite an investigation clearing
him, a lawyer for Jeffrey Reodica's family said Wednesday.
Lawyer Barry Swadron said there
is "still scope for criminal charges" if an investigation
by the province's Special Investigations Unit was incomplete,
substandard or contradicts the evidence.
The family finds details of
the investigation released by the unit "unacceptable"
and "rejects a number of aspects of it," Swadron said
at a news conference held by the family.
"Does a decision of the
SIU mean there can never be a criminal charge against the shooter
for shooting Jeffrey?" Swadron asked. "In my view,
it does not."
The 17-year-old boy was shot
three times on May 21 after police responded to reports of a
brawl between rival youth gangs in the city's east end.
The SIU, a civilian agency
that investigates police incidents involving death or serious
injury, found that several witnesses reported seeing the teen
holding a large rock when he was confronted by a plainclothes
officer.
Witnesses said the Grade 11
student dropped the rock when ordered to, but the SIU said he
continued walking away from the officer despite being told to
stop.
After a struggle in which Reodica
broke free and struck an officer with his left hand -- which
the officer believed held a knife -- the teen was shot.
A post-mortem determined Reodica
was shot once in the side, once in the back above his right hip,
and once in the back between the shoulders.
Ontario's chief coroner has
ordered an inquest into the killing, which the family "is
anxious to participate in," Swadron said.
"At this stage in the
mourning process, the family is determined to get to the bottom
of why he had to die."
The provincial Coroner's Act
"contemplates the possibility" of criminal charges
in a death being laid on evidence presented at an inquest, Swadron
said.
He also urged the coroner to
issue a summons to obtain the entire SIU investigation and make
it available to all participants.
SIU spokeswoman Rose Bliss
said Wednesday the incident is "tragic," but the unit
stands by its investigation.
"We are confident that
we did the best job possible based on the evidence available,"
she said.
The family disputes several
statements made by the SIU and suggests it's possible Reodica
did not know the officers were police, Swadron said. It wants
the inquest to consider a number of issues, among them:
--Under what conditions plainclothes
officers in unmarked cars should be involved in community policing.
--When and how they should
be required to disclose their identities.
--When they should be permitted
to use deadly force, and if so, when might it become excessive.
Swadron said the family questions
the SIU report's determination that the officer identified himself
as "normal police practice."
"Just because it makes
sense, does not mean it happened," Swadron said.
"Will the director accept
the family's word that it is the normal practice of Jeffrey to
respect and listen to the police?"
A date for the inquest has
not been set.
© The Canadian Press 2004
How Jeffrey Reodica was
shot: An eyewitness account
(An exclusive interview
with a boy who was at the scene when Jeffrey Reodica was shot
by a police officer on May 21, 2004 in Scarboro.)
By Marlou S. Tiro
The Philippine Reporter
June 1-15
As the real story behind Jeffrey
Reodica's mysterious death slowly unfolds, many questions have
been left unanswered. Willie Reodica, Jeffrey's father already
appealed to all potential witnesses to come forward and help
them. Since the incident happened on Friday, May 21, up to the
time of his death on Monday night, several versions have come
out in the open, some of them conflicting.
All of Jeffrey's friends have
been advised not to talk to anybody about the incident so it
was difficult for us, in the media to talk to them too. While
following up the story, I was shown Jeffrey's school. Then, by
chance, I met the boy who was right there when the incident happened.
He said he was scared to talk to anybody especially the authorities.
With assurance for his safety, we were able to convince him to
ride with us inside the car so we can ask him more questions.
I realized that people with us in te car were tense. So was the
boy. I became nervous too especially a young lady who was always
checking if someone was following us. While inside the car, we
were always on the look out of any mysterious van.
This boy, who refused to be
identified, was with Jeffrey at the time of the shooting. He
saw vividly how Jeffrey was shot and narrated how it really happened.
This was his account:
It all started with a scuffle
inside a basketball court on that Thursday, May 20. White teen-agers
approached and tried to bully two members of our group.They got
our ball and did not want to return it to us. When one of our
members tried to get it back, one White boy hit him in the face
and pushed him.
Another white boy also physically
assaulted the second Filipino boy. More so, they were told to
"go back to the Philippines and eat rice". In the hope
not to make things worse, we just let it pass. However, deep
inside, the two boys did not want to just let it pass.
The following day, Friday,
we thought of retaliating. As my friends and I were walking along
towards a residential area, the same group of white boys were
heading towards us with baseball bats. They thought it was just
the three of us. However, some of my friends joined us so the
group ran away. We chased them arming ourselves with only rocks
in our hands. We ran around the neighborhood until Jeffrey who
was standing across the street saw us. He asked us "what's
up?". We told him that we want to hit back on these kids
who humiliated us on Thursday. Jeffrey, upon knowing who the
members of the other group were, told us that he would also help.
He said that these were the same group who physically hurt his
cousin. Honestly, we felt the need to retaliate because of what
happened that Thursday.
Since there were eight of us
now, we split our group. We searched the neighborhood but we
could not find anyone. Finally, one of my friends spotted them
riding a white van. The van passed a corner where they picked
up two boys who were hiding. A lady came out of the van and told
the two boys to get in. We were 10 feet away from the van. We
went towards the van but suddenly a black car pulled over behind
it. Two big men came out. We thought they were relatives of the
gang. Then they went back inside their car and drove towards
us. One cop (as we came to know later), told us to kneel down
and drop the rocks we were holding in our hands. We were confused.
We thought these were just guys who wanted to hurt us. They never
told us they were cops. The other cop who was driving the car
came out from the car, pulled his gun and went towards Jeffrey.
He told Jeffrey to drop his rock and kneel down. He pushed Jeffrey
down while pointing a gun at him. Jeffrey bent halfway, covered
his head with his both arms with his body in a curl position.
While the cop driver pointed the gun on Jeffrey, he was also
slapping Jeffrey with his left hand. Since he continued on slapping,
Jeffrey swirled around trying to prevent the cop's hand on hitting
him. I know Jeffrey did that because he did not know they were
cops. They never identified themselves as cops. We thought they
were relatives of the other gang who wanted to hurt us. While
doing so, the driver cop shot Jeffrey. I was shocked and so was
the other cop who was unable to move. My eyes simply blinked
when I heard the first shot. It happened so fast. I saw him shooting
Jeffrey then Jeffrey swirled towards the right, the cop again
shot him and I heard again another shot. I was standing close
to Jeffrey with the other cop next to me. I saw clearly what
happened. I was unable to move. Contrary to other reports, I
did not see Jeffrey swinging a knife towards the cop. Nor did
we all resist when they told us to gather together.
The next thing I knew, I saw
Jeffrey splattered with blood all over, his face down. One of
the cops administered CPR. Then the cops called paramedics --
after 10 minutes. Later, they brought us all to the police station
for questioning. They asked us a lot of questions. They asked
us in a very rapid manner. All of us were scared because of what
we witnessed. We did not know what to do. Our parents were not
around."
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Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
