Asian American Empowerment - Officer Shot Teen in Back, Father Says

By Joe Friesen
Š2004 The Globe and Mail
May 26, 2004

The 17-year-old killed by a Toronto Police officer was shot in the back, according to a doctor who treated him, his father said yesterday.

Willie Reodica, whose son Jeffrey was shot by an undercover officer in Scarborough on Friday, said his son was shot three times. One of the bullets travelled up the young man's spine, lodging at the base of his brain. He was taken off life support late Monday night after doctors said the flow of blood to his brain had been cut off.

"I got it from the head investigator of the SIU [Special Investigations Unit] that he suffered from three bullet wounds and one of them sort of fragmented and went up through his spine towards the right stem of his brain," Mr. Reodica said. "He was shot in the back, for sure.

"That's what the doctor said, three shots to the back."

The incident occurred in a residential neighbourhood near Scarborough General Hospital on Friday afternoon. Two plainclothes officers responded to 911 calls about a fight between teenagers wielding bats and knives. Witnesses said on Friday that an undercover officer shot a youth after struggling to arrest him.

The Special Investigations Unit, which oversees the investigation of police incidents involving serious injury or death, said yesterday it had found no evidence to back up earlier reports that the plainclothes officer had been stabbed before he fired.

"The information that we've gathered to date in our investigation indicates that no involved officer was seriously injured as a result of the confrontation," Rose Hong of the SIU said.

She could not confirm whether Jeffrey Reodica was shot in the back.

"What we're examining here is all the circumstances surrounding the shooting and, ultimately, whether the shooting was legally justified," Ms. Hong said.

Mr. Reodica, who went to church yesterday with his family to pray for his son, said he blamed the plainclothes officer for the shooting.

"I can't blame the Toronto police, but I blame the subject officer for doing a horrendous act like that. This subject officer -- all the letters of the law must be applied to him if he's proven guilty."

A website belonging to Raymond Mendoza, a friend of Jeffrey's older brother, said yesterday that a racial dispute sparked the incident. According to Mr. Mendoza, two young men proclaiming "white power" attacked two Filipino youths last week. Jeffrey Reodica and several other youths set out Friday to get revenge, he wrote. When the plainclothes officers arrived at Benleigh Drive and Benorama Crescent, it was not immediately clear they were police, the website said. After a struggle, the website alleges, Jeffrey Reodica tried to run away and was shot. Mr. Mendoza said his account of events comes from people who were present.

Born in Canada in 1987, Jeffrey Reodica loved sports, served his church and dreamed of becoming a businessman. He worked at a doughnut shop, had been an altar server at St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church and wanted to run his own company some day.

His father said he believed his son was headed to a friend's birthday party on the night he was shot.

"Probably they were surprised to be confronted by a plainclothes police officer, and instead of just talking to [Jeffrey and the others], the tendency is, they sort of are arresting them, especially my son," Mr. Reodica said. "He's a very peaceful guy."