Toronto homicide detectives aren’t looking for anyone else in the crossfire murder of 11-year-old Ephraim Gerald Brown.
Akiel Eubank and Gregory Sappleton, both 24, were acquitted of second-degree murder in the 2007 gang shootout that resulted in Ephraim’s death at the Sheppard Ave. W. housing complex near Jane St.
The Crown’s key witness, Kishauna Thomas, the lad’s cousin who was celebrating her birthday the night of the murder, braved intimidation for stepping up to the plate, but was discredited by defence questioning as providing unreliable evidence. Indeed the defence suggested she made up her testimony.
But after testifying against two gang members, she’s now wondering, “What about me?”
It was a question she posed to homicide Det.-Sgt. Gary Giroux, the lead investigator, after Monday’s verdict.
“I’m working on figuring it out now, for her,” he said Tuesday. “I’m working my way through it with her.
“We have an obligation to ensure she has the ability to go about her life and feel she doesn’t have to look over her shoulder,” Giroux said. “I said, ‘We’re not going to abandon you. We’ll be there to help you.’”
Eubank was identified as a 5-Point Generalz member while Sappleton was tied to the local Baghdad Crew.
“I’m not looking for anybody else,” Giroux said Tuesday.
The day after he tried to console Ephriam’s mom Lorna, he described the jury’s verdict as disappointing.
“It was pretty much like we did originally, it was like her son died all over again,” he said. “Anything she had done to recover from it was eroded in seconds.”
Giroux said “it’s very difficult to predict at this point” if the dispute between the two rival gangs will be re-ignited.
http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2010/12/14/16552181.html
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