Father to son's killer: 'We have forgiven you,' but please surrender
The father of a teenager shot and killed in a Toronto neighbourhood in September is asking the killer to come forward.
Nana Appiah, whose son William Junior Appiah, 18, was shot while playing basketball Sept. 16, visits the basketball court in Toronto's Jane and Finch neighbourhood every day, lighting candles and remembering.
Appiah told CBC News he doesn't know how it all happened, how his son could be playing basketball one minute and then get shot to death.
He said he forgives whoever shot his son, and now all he wants is for that person to come forward.
"We have forgiven you for what you did to our son," he said. "Our son is in a better place now. We just want you to know that we miss him daily and nobody deserves to die this way."
Appiah, a native of Ghana, lights candles at the court at Jane Street and Driftwood Avenue every day, explaining that's how people in his home country mourn.
"That is our culture, when somebody dies where they are killed. Even if it is an accident in the bush, we go there to pay tribute every day until we bury them," Appiah said.
The teen won't be buried until next week and police said their investigation is continuing.
Police looking for 3 men who left the scene
Police officials had said they believed Appiah, who grew up in the area but was not currently living there, had been targeted by his killers. Police are looking for three men who were wearing hooded sweatshirts and dark clothing and left the scene in a car.
The shooting haunts the neighbourhood weeks later. One woman, too scared to give her full name, told CBC News she thinks about Appiah's death daily.
"I was visiting my friend in the building and I heard the shots," she said. "I ran out there and I just saw him lying there tried to give hem CPR, but it didn't work."
"[I] can't sleep, just keep seeing him all the time."
Homicide Det.-Sgt. Gary Grinton, said police have received some information from people in the community.
"We are getting far closer to knowing what happened and why, but it's a stretch to say we are closer to an arrest," he said. "We never promise to make an arrest; we only promise to do the best we can."
Appiah's family said the 18-year-old was not a drug dealer or involved in a gang.