With August winding down and thoughts of back to school in the minds of most parents, Holly Roy instead spent Aug. 19 bathing the body of her dead eight-year-old son, JahVai, as per burial rights in her home community of Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory.
It’s a way of preparing the young boy for his spiritual next journey. His first journey ended abruptly on Aug. 16, when he was hit by a stray bullet while in bed and died from the wound.
Laying beside his mother that Saturday night, Roy said her son was so excited for a friend’s party he couldn’t sleep, and was sleeping with his mother, playing and cuddling until they both drifted off.
That’s when they heard loud “bangs” first thought to be fireworks. There were two shots initially, she said, then another three, then glass hit her face.
She said her son sat up and looked at her, his face frozen in fear. It was the last time she would look upon him alive.
She said she grabbed for him, almost blindly trying to pull him to the floor. It was then she realized his body was “lifeless,” she said. She was covered in his blood.
“I ran with my son's lifeless body to my doorway. There was nothing I could do but scream and hold his lifeless little body.”
JahVai died at the hospital just a short time later.
Roy’s two other children, Diondre, 21, and Khadijah, 14, were at home at the time. They watched their mother scream, watched her cry — in addition to both experiencing gun violence: Diondre survived a shooting in 2019 and Khadijah has been threatened with a gun.
It led JahVai to become the youngest ambassador ever for the One by One Movement, which “assists organizations to decrease extreme acts of violence across the globe.” His mother hopes his name will now carry the work he wanted to do when he got older.
Roy said she’ll never stop seeing the images of her child that day, or the sight of his blood, or her anguish. It’s something she said she’ll carry forever, but also, will give her the fire to find justice for him.
The investigation is ongoing, with Toronto Police pointing to a stray bullet from another shooting.
Det.-Sgt. Jason Davis, a member of the police's homicide and missing persons unit, told a scrum of reporters Aug. 16 that the shooting happened outside the building. Two other apartment units were struck by gunfire, but no one else was injured.
What they have not said is how many shooters there were, who the shooters were aiming at, or whether the shooting was targeted or not.
Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw said at the same presser that police will "pursue every lead, every bit of evidence, wherever it takes us, to ensure that those who are responsible for this horrible act of violence are held accountable."
But even if there is blame in place, Roy still doesn’t have her baby. “I don't want to sleep and I don't want to be awake. And I’m so f–king hurt and I'm so f–king angry,” she wrote on Facebook.
She’s hoping that travelling with her son back home, to Rabbit Island off Manitoulin Island (at the end of Rabbit Island Road near Wikwemikong) and feasting and praying with her family will bring at least a little peace.
She said it’s hard to be without his light. In all the posts and messages about JahVai, he’s always referred to as a joyful and bright little boy. Roy said he loved to dote on the family, even acting as big brother to his older siblings on occasion. He had so much love to give the world, she said.
“He was a great spark of light,” she said, “and so full of energy.”
She said he was a quiet baby when he was born, and beloved by his siblings who took a hand in raising him. But that all changed when he got older, said Roy, as her boy became a ball of energy.
He loved to get out of the city and go back to “the Rez.” she said. “That was his home, his land, and that’s why we’re taking him back there.
He was also an “animal whisperer,” said Roy, and said he would always be found with snakes or frogs, and at one time, in the city, she looked over to find his smiling face and his hand holding a seagull.
But no more.
A sacred fire was lit as soon as word of JahVai’s death got back to the island; the fire keepers have tended it carefully each day since. A procession on Aug. 19 brought him from Island Funeral Home in Little Current along Rabbit Island Road, led by fire trucks with first responders saluting as the hearse passed the station. The funeral service for JahVai will be held Wednesday, Aug. 20 at 10 a.m. at the Rabbit Island Centre (701 Rabbit Island Road) near Wiikwemkoong on Manitoulin Island.
The Roy family and their friends have also started a GoFundMe to support funeral and memorial service expenses; relocation of Holly and her kids to a new, safe and secure home; trauma counseling and emotional support for the family and any other unforeseen costs “as they attempt to rebuild their lives after this tragedy.”
A rally against gun violence will take place in Nathan Phillips Square on Friday, Aug. 22 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. It’s organized by Roy’s employers, ENAGB Indigenous Youth Agency, where she works as a crisis manager. “We are asking our city of Toronto to stand in solidarity with us, to demand urgent action against the rise in gun violence affecting our communities,” the agency said on Facebook. “Please bring your signs, drums, shakers, wear your ribbon shirts and ribbon skirts, or JahVai’s favourite colour, blue. We will stand united.”
And a request from Roy as well: “Remember his name; please, never forget his name.”
Jenny Lamothe covers vulnerable and marginalized populations, as well as housing issues and the justice system for Sudbury.com.