His youth was shattered by a police gun. And now his life has been cut short by a thug’s.
Yohannes Brhanu, 22, was this year’s record-tying homicide #89, killed in a midnight gun battle waged on a quiet residential street this week, yet another casualty of the gun violence that has plagued our city this year.
But he was supposed to have escaped it.
Brhanu was one of the infamous Neptune Four, black teens from Lawrence Heights who were stopped by Toronto Police on their way to an after-school program in November 2011. The police were looking for robbery suspects and demanded identification.
When one of the boys tried to walk away after learning they weren’t under arrest, he alleged he was beaten while his twin brother and their two friends were told at gunpoint: “Don’t move or I’ll f—–g kill you.”
The four boys were arrested but all charges were dropped after a Toronto Housing security video surfaced showing the police encounter.
Const. Adam Lourenco and Const. Scharnil Pais were later charged under the Police Services Act: Pais faces one count of unlawful arrest while Lourenco is charged with unlawful arrest as well as two counts of using unreasonable force for allegedly punching the teen and pointing his gun at Brhanu and the others.
Both officers pleaded not guilty in 2017 — and unbelievably, their disciplinary hearing is still ongoing with another date set for next week. The four teens also launched a civil suit against them in 2013.
Roderick Brereton had known Brhanu since 2011 when his Urban Rez Solutions ran a mentoring program in the Neptune housing project. “He was an individual who was bright, very witty, full of life and had tonnes of potential.
“He wanted to get into construction and we helped him get into a pre-apprenticeship program. I hadn’t talked to him in the last couple of months but he was working in construction and seemed to be doing pretty well.”
And so the community consultant was shocked when he learned not only that Brhanu had been killed in a gun fight but that a loaded, unused firearm was found in his vehicle.
“I was utterly surprised,” said the shaken Brereton, 47. “I didn’t know him to be involved in any of this activity. To be honest, nobody knows what happened. I don’t know if he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The police said they found a gun. I don’t know if it was his.”
His mother and siblings are equally stunned and none of it fits with the young man he thought he knew.
“There was no indication this would be in his deck of cards,” he said. “I’ve been trying to wrap my head around what the message is. There’s still shock that this young person is gone. I’m still trying to process it.”
Brhanu had testified last year at the police tribunal against the two officers who stopped him and his friends when he was 15.
“I think it had a huge adverse impact on his psyche,” Brereton said. “There was a loss of trust, there was paranoia. The police are supposed to be there to serve and protect …they ran into some bad apples that day.”
The three surviving Neptune Four are all doing well, he said, attending university and starting businesses. They’re equally mystified by what’s befallen Brhanu, he said. “They grew up together. They’re a close-knit family. They’re very traumatized by what happened.”
Brereton is still waiting for more information before accepting that the teen he mentored was involved in gang activity. He insists the rest of us should wait as well.
And if turns out to be true? “Everybody’s accountable for their choices,” he sighed. “I couldn’t say what has gone wrong. Sometimes people fall off the path.”
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