Ex-gangster survived Toronto park shooting. Now in hiding, he's putting his life back together
Jose Vivar's life has been defined by guns.
For years, he was involved in gang life in Toronto and he lived by the gun. After a stretch in prison, he vowed to leave all that behind. He became a fitness instructor. And he hoped to use exercise as a way to inspire people to reject violence.
After the first shot went off and missed me, it was like I was frozen.- Jose Vivar
This summer, as he was leading a morning fitness class in Christie Pits park in downtown Toronto, he nearly died by the gun. Someone pumped five bullets into Vivar.
Now he's recovering. He's left Toronto. But he will not tell anyone where he and his family are living because he fears for his safety.
"The human body is a marvel. With every day that passes, I feel a lot better," he tells As It Happens host Carol Off from an undisclosed location. "I'm going to keep moving forward."
Vivar served more than eight years in prison on drug and gun charges. He began offering free fitness sessions, called Prison Pump, at Christie Pits on Saturday mornings.
It was on one of those mornings, in July, with his two sons and their mother by his side, that he was attacked.
"After the first shot went off and missed me, it was like I was frozen," he recalls. "After the third shot, my son [Markus] pulled me and my first instinct was to just run up the hill."
"I just remember holding one of the exit wounds in my back and my son also holding one of the exit wounds," Vivar says. "A lot of blood was coming out. We made it to the top and I just felt my heart beating faster than it's ever beaten in my life."
I was in the game deep. Some of the things you see in movies, I've lived that life and, for sure, it caught up to me.- Jose Vivar
He lay down and struggled to keep his eyes open until the ambulance arrived.
"What kept me up was my family and the fact that everybody stayed there. There was not one person involved in the group that left."
No one has been arrested in connection with the shooting. Vivar says he doesn't know who would want him dead.
"I was released [from prison] without a scratch on my body in an environment where people get stabbed over nothing," he says. "So, when I came home, I just felt that, as long as I stick to the game plan, don't get back into the drug game and I'm not stepping on anybody's toes, nothing will happen to me."
Vivar got involved in gangs when he was a teenager and rose up through the ranks. In 2003, he was charged and acquitted of killing a rival. Later, he was caught up in a police raid dubbed Project Cheddar.
"I was in the game deep. Some of the things you see in movies, I've lived that life and, for sure, it caught up to me," he says. "Sometimes I may even have forgotten problems I may have run into with some people and some people don't forget."
Now, Vivar is trying to put his life back together from hiding. He's living with his two sons and their mother.
"We've been through a lot in life and this is a situation that makes us realize how short life is."
For more on Jose Vivar's story, listen to our full interview.