Fatal Shooting of a 16-year old (New Journalism)

Innocent 16-year-old Teen Shot Dead in Etobicoke

“Oh come on! I told Xabie I was sleeping at your house tonight. Where am I going to stay?” Trevor Seraphine asked his unnamed friend.

“Not here! I told you, you can’t be doing that at my house!” His friend exclaimed.

“I said I was sorry, please, let me back in.” Trevor desperately pleaded.

“I’m sorry Trevor, I can’t.” His friend said, closing the door behind him.

Seraphine was supposed to sleep over at a nearby friend’s house on the night of the shooting that led to his death, but was unexpectedly kicked out during his stay. Xabie Adjodha, Seraphine’s cousin, told the Star that Seraphine was visiting a previous girlfriend who lived in the building he was shot in.

Trevor walked into the building’s lobby and punched in the numbers that rang his old girlfriend’s apartment;

“Hello?” An obviously tired female voice passed through the speaker.

“Hey, it’s Trevor. Can I come up?”

“Trevor? It’s past midnight, what are you doing here?”

“Look, I got kicked out of my friend’s place; can I stay here for the night? I won’t bother you at all.”

“I don’t think my parents would like the idea of a boy sleeping here, being so late at night, and especially you. They know all about our relationship.”

“I’m sorry, but I really need somewhere to stay. It’d be embarrassing going back to Xabie’s after being kicked out of my friend’s house. I promise I’ll be gone first thing in the morning. I don’t have anywhere else to go.”

“I’ll ask, alright? But there’s no guarantee that you be-”

Trevor cut her off.

“Thank you, I promise your parents it’ll be like I’m invisible.”

“Okay, hold on.” She said as she put the phone down.

Trevor patiently paced back and forth, waiting for a response. A buzzing noise came from the door next to him.

The speaker muffled as she picked up the phone.

“Come on up. My dad will talk to you up here.”

“Thank you! I’ll be right there.” Trevor excitedly exclaimed.

“Oh, and make sure the door behind closes properly. Sometimes the hinge gets stuck and the door doesn’t-”

A loud bang. Glass shattering. Before she could even respond, three more of the familiar bangs rang through the earpiece of the telephone and echoed throughout the lobby. She flinched at the sound of each of them. Then a dull thud; similar to that of a heavy backpack being thrown on the kitchen floor after a child comes home from school.

“Hello?” She called out through the phone.

No response.

Again, she called out.

“Trevor?”

No response. Rather, she heard the faint rapid footsteps of someone coming closer to the lobby. They became louder and louder.

“Oh my God! Call 911!” she heard a voice yell.

She was confused, but couldn’t find herself to make out any words. Instead, she just listened to the unfamiliar voices.

“Hello?” A second voice emerged. “911? There is an emergency at 44 Willowridge Drive.”

Her heart raced. She took the phone away from her ear but the voice from the lobby still came through.

“A boy’s been shot.”

Xabie Adjodha rushed through the hospital doors to find out what had happened. The police told her that her cousin was suffering from life-threatening gunshot wounds.

Seraphine was later pronounced dead that morning.

“I took them from their house and one of them died.” Adjodha wept, clearly trying to fight the tears from her eyes.

“We’re originally from St. Lucia, an Island off the Caribbean. I brought Trevor and his six siblings to Canada, eight years ago, in hopes of a better life. Their parents stayed back on the island.” She explained.

“We lived in the area where he was shot, but we moved recently because the area was getting too dangerous. We hoped to escape the events that happen there. Obviously, we were wrong. It could’ve been anybody. It just happened to be him.”

Smiling, she recalled her memories of Seraphine.

“He would give you that shy smirk. He rapped too, he recorded himself. He was talented; he was just so shy he couldn’t show any of his friends. Everyone knew Trevor could make you happy or make you laugh.”

“I was the one helping feed him and bringing him to school. I love this kid.” She said, before breaking down once again.

16-year old Trevor Seraphine, pictured, was fatally shot inside the lobby of an apartment complex.