There is no way to express the city’s collective outrage over the gang violence that erupted on Yonge Street and claimed the life of innocent bystander Jane Creba on Boxing Day 2005, the slain girl’s parents say.
Although the 15-year-old girl’s parents haven’t publicly spoken about the tragedy, yesterday the sentencing hearing for the first person convicted in the killing heard their victim impact statement.
“Beyond those connected directly to Jane, the people of Toronto have been forever changed by the Boxing Day shootings,” Bruce Creba and Virginia Barton wrote in the statement, which was read in court by the Crown prosecutor.
“There is no way to express the collective shock, outrage and bitterness in seeing Toronto’s main street plunged into open gang violence, from people with seemingly no regard for others, and end in the death of an innocent bystander, our Jane.”
The shootout on Yonge Street that claimed their “bright light” has turned the holidays, once a time of celebration, into a time of healing, they said.
“The impact of Jane’s death on the family was and continues to be deep and profound,” the statement reads. “The immediate tsunami of grief and sadness that swept up her parents, brother and sister also pulled into its wake her cousins, uncles, aunts, grandparents and close friends.”
A 21-year-old man, known only as J.S.R. because he was a youth at the time of Creba’s death, was convicted four months ago of second-degree murder, as well as two counts of aggravated assault and five weapons charges.
