Toronto had a violent Labour Day weekend at the 2024 turn month coming into September. All-in-all, there were 11 different shootings in the city. One of the more grisly shootings occurred at the North York Plaza on Monday, September 2nd, 2024, when a 15-year-old boy was targeted in a drive-by shooting.
The shooting had occurred in front of Tudo’s Pizza House at around 7:45pm near the intersection of Threteway Drive and Black Creek Drive. It was the homicide of a 15-year-old boy named Mario Giddings. His aunt, Fortunata Giddings, had first heard about the incident moments after it had occurred with neighbors telling her that her niece had just been shot. Once she headed downstairs to the pizza place, she had seen emergency services giving CPR to the victim.
The killers were wearing gloves and a mask and drove a ‘dark’ colored four door vehicle when the shooting happened. Witnesses had seen the suspects enter North York Plaza before firing shots at the 15-year-old then fleeing, in the same vehicle. When authorities and emergency services arrived on the scene, they found Mario Giddings shot and unresponsive. After an attempt at CPR on the boy, they rushed him to the nearest hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The owner of Tudo’s Pizza House told media how one of the stray bullets had went through a window and pierced a hole in one the restaurant’s refrigerator , just steps away from where kids were eating at a table in the restaurant.
The 15-year-old boy was getting ready to start Grade 11 at Weston Collegiate the next day, a day that never arrived in the boy’s life. He would have been a new student of a new school due to the fact that he was involved in a conflict with students that had come from a rival school the year prior. Mario’s aunt stated how he wanted to change schools due to the fact the he was fearing for his life at his current school. She reached out to the Vice Principal of Weston Collegiate, but hadn’t managed to get him transferred.
This had been a sign on how Mario Giddings wanted to avoid conflict and was not looking to stir up the pot although his aunt, Fortunata Giddings, mentioned of how the teenage boy had sometimes been hard-headed. Always wanting to go hang out in in the streets, but on the other hand, what 15-year-old doesn’t enjoy getting out of the house. The group of kids in Mario’s neighborhood had troubles with another group stemming from a separate neighborhood. Mario was living with his aunt at the time of the shooting due to the fact that his parents had moved back to St. Lucia in the Caribbean.
It is unconfirmed whether the recent conflicts going on between the group of kids in the other neighborhood or even the group of kids from the rival school had anything to do with the shooting. Either way, 15 is no age to die, whether you are involved in street gangs or not. Mourners had set flowers and candles in front of the pizza shop in which the 15-year-old was shot.
Only a couple days after the homicide, unknown individuals had went to his memorial, at the very place he died, in front of Tudo’s Pizza House. With bad intentions, they looked at the memorial, which was lathered with pictures, candles and flowers and disrespectfully sabotaged the whole scene, knocking over candles, shattering them and stomping on the flowers set out by mourners. Filming the incident then posting it online afterwards.
We do not condone the acts of sabotaging the memorial of the deceased, but rather find it disgusting.
Rest in Peace; Mario Gibbings (?-September 2nd, 2024)
