IBRAHIM o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-01-03 published
son may have been target
Police make arrest in woman's death
By Raveena
AULAKH and Timothy
APPLEBY,
Page A8
Toronto -- Jean
SPRINGER may have been shot down when she tried
to protect her youngest son from a friend who showed up at her
front door with a gun, according to a Toronto police source.
Ms. SPRINGER, 60, was killed on New Year's Day by a single bullet
that struck her in the face. She was pronounced dead at Sunnybrook
hospital, becoming the city's first homicide victim of 2007.
Heavily armed officers arrested 26-year-old Altaf
IBRAHIM 12 hours
later in his basement apartment in Scarborough, a few minutes
drive from the
SPRINGER home. He is charged with first-degree
murder, a charge that implies the killing was planned.
A police source said last night that the gunman may have been
looking for Ms.
SPRINGER's youngest son Antoine, also 26, when
he arrived at the
SPRINGER home in the Malvern neighbourhood
about 2: 30 p.m.
"It looks like there was some kind of dispute between the two
young men and Ms.
SPRINGER got between and got shot," a police
source said.
The accused is said to have known Ms.
SPRINGER's youngest son,
who along with an older brother was in his mother's Snowball
Crescent home Monday as she prepared New Year's Day dinner.
"They grew up together, at least from their teen years," said
Detective Gary
GRINTON of the Toronto homicide squad.
Mr. IBRAHIM lives alone in an apartment on Brimorton Drive. He
was arrested about 2 a.m. yesterday without a struggle. Clad
in orange prison garb, he appeared briefly in court in Scarborough
yesterday and was remanded in custody. Police were still seeking
the handgun allegedly used to kill Ms.
SPRINGER, known locally
as "Auntie Jeannie."
"You have what I believe was a truly innocent woman just going
about her business," Det.
GRINTON said of Ms.
SPRINGER, widely
described as an exemplary citizen, devoted parent and regular
worshipper at the Malvern Methodist Church. "It's shocking."
Neither Mr.
IBRAHIM nor any members of the
SPRINGER family have
criminal records. And if there was any animosity before Monday's
shooting, it had not been manifest in the shape of threats or
any physical altercations, Det.
GRINTON said.
Nor were any gang affiliations involved, he said. "None whatsoever."
He dismissed a news report that said the gunman yelled "Happy
New
Year," as he opened fire, but agreed that because Ms.
SPRINGER
let him into her home, she likely perceived no threat.
Beyond stating that postshooting 911 calls were received from
several neighbours, as well as from within the
SPRINGER home,
detectives would not say what led them to charge Mr.
IBRAHIM
so quickly.
Yesterday, at the three-unit house where Mr.
IBRAHIM has lived
since last summer, few neighbours seemed to know much about the
basement apartment's tall, solitary occupant, who would sometimes
step outside for a cigarette but mostly kept to himself.
"He moved in when the new owner bought the house," said George
BOORNE, who lives across the street and saw the 2 a.m. arrest.
"But I never saw him around."
At the SPRINGER home yesterday, Friends and neighbours voiced
shock and sorrow at the brutal death of a woman described as
a popular pillar of the community who often helped organize local
events.
"I met her on New Year's Eve at the home of one of our sisters,
we had a good time," said Norma
McKENZIE, who had known Ms.
SPRINGER
at the Malvern Methodist Church for 10 years.
Ms. McKENZIE described the family of four as God-fearing, close-knit,
regular church-goers. "Antoine was part of my team at Ford company
and we worked well together."
Other worshippers concurred in praising Ms.
SPRINGER's devotion
to family and church.
"She was closely involved with the church," said Sandra
LECKY,
church secretary. "We know where she is today -- there was no
victory here."
Church staff brought in extra chairs yesterday evening as mourners
packed in to pay their respects. Those in attendance hugged and
consoled one another, occasionally rising in songs.
Reading from a statement prepared by Ms.
SPRINGER's family --
most attended the service but did not want to speak to reporters
youth pastor Marlon
MITCHELL described her as "… quiet, charming,
intelligent and very much understated in manner. She had style
and flair, but all of it counted for nothing compared to how
much she celebrated her relationship with God through Jesus Christ."
Ms. SPRINGER was born in 1946 in Port of Spain, Trinidad and
Tobago. As a student, she won a scholarship to a grammar school
for girls and eventually earned a teacher's diploma. She arrived
in Canada in the late 1960s, and initially continued teaching
primary school. However, she soon switched jobs, becoming an
accountant. Self-employed, she stayed in that line of work until
her death.
But it was her religious faith that stood out above all else,
Friends said yesterday. Indeed, it is that faith that now allows
her family to bear no grudges against the man accused of stepping
into her home and taking her life.
"Today we mourn her loss, but our faith calls on us to forgive
others [as] God has in Christ forgiven us," Mr.
MITCHELL read
from the family's statement yesterday. "Jean had a forgiving
spirit and we are sure that she would want us to forgive whoever
has committed this senseless act."
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IBRAHIM o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2007-01-02 published
Arrest in first 2007 homicide
Photos By Carlos
OSORIO / Toronto Star
Police said Jean
SPRINGER was shot in the face after answering
the door at her home on Snowball Cres. near Neilson Rd. and Sheppard
Ave. E. SPRINGER, who was in her 60s, was pronounced dead at
hospital. The slaying is Toronto's first homicide of 2007.
Victim one of four hit by gunshots as 2007 gets off to a violent
start in Toronto
By Isabel TEOTONIO,
Joanna
SMITH and Thulasi
SRIKANTHAN, Staff
Reporters
It is January 2, only two days into the New Year, and police
are already busy investigating a string of shootings throughout
the city that left one woman dead and three other people injured.
A man arrested in connection with Toronto's first homicide of
2007 appeared in a Scarborough courthouse this morning wearing
an orange jumpsuit and looking dishevelled.
Altaf IBRAHIM, 26, made a brief court appearance after a lengthy
delay. He is charged with first-degree murder. Also in the courtroom
were three of his male relatives, but they refused to speak with
reporters.
Toronto police arrested the man after the shooting death Monday
of Jean SPRINGER, 60, in her Malvern home around 2: 30 p.m.
SPRINGER was shot in the face and killed when she opened the
door of her home to a caller, believed to be a friend of her
son's.
During the wee hours of this morning, another woman was shot,
reportedly in the face, in an Etobicoke high-rise.
Emergency crews were called to the 20th floor of the building
on Weston Rd. near Lawrence Ave. W. at about 1 a.m., where they
found a woman, about 20 years old, suffering from gunshot wounds,
police said.
Police would not comment on the extent of her injuries, but said
the homicide squad has been called in to monitor the case. She
is in hospital and fighting for her life.
Investigators do not have a suspect at this time and the victim's
name is being withheld until her family has been notified, police
said.
A couple of hours later, around 3: 20 a.m., two men were shot
in the leg as doormen were in the process of kicking them out
of a downtown Toronto nightclub.
Police are investigating if one of the victims was the shooter
and if a doorman was the intended target.
One shooting victim is 19 and the other is around the same age.
Police were called to the Kool Haus, which is part of The Guvernment
entertainment complex on Queens Quay E. at Lower Jarvis Street,
after shots rang out near the entrance to the club, where a private
event was being held.
The two men, who are Friends, were part of a larger group being
ejected by security because of a fight that had broken out. Gunfire
erupted just outside the Jarvis St. entrance.
One victim tried to flee in a taxi, but moments later it was
stopped by police. The other was found at the scene.
Each was transported with non-life threatening injuries to hospital,
where they are currently under police watch.
Charges have not been laid against the men.
Anyone with information is asked to call 416-222-8477.
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IBRAHIM o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2007-01-03 published
A knock, and then a shot
A quiet afternoon preparing to entertain shattered by a visitor
on New Year's Day
By Dale Anne
FREED,
Staff
Reporter with files from Thulasi
SRIKANTHAN
and Betsy POWELL
It was New Year's Day. And the fragrant smells of cow-heel soup,
kingfish and chicken wafted through the house when Arden-Ray
SPRINGER heard the knock at the front door.
"Answer the door, Jean," he called up from the basement. He thought
guests were arriving early for a family party.
Instead, he heard a man's voice. "Is Anton here?"
"No, he's got his own place now," he heard his wife say.
"Is Anwele here?"
Jean called her son. It was the last time he heard her voice.
Then he heard a bang.
"That's a gunshot," he thought. "What's a gunshot doing in my
house?"
Arden-Ray ran upstairs, just as a young man was leaving. He turned
to the foyer and saw his wife lying near the kitchen, a gunshot
wound to her temple.
"She's lying in a pool of blood. She never saw it coming, that's
the saving grace. There was no frozen fear on her face."
Then the oldest son, Anwele-Ray, 32, came running down the stairs.
He had recognized the voice at the door. It was a friend of his
28-year-old brother, his father said.
"I opened the door. There he was, he was pointing a gun at me.
I pushed Anwele to the left and I fell to the right," he said.
"It was a handgun."
The man put his gun away as neighbours started to gather outside
the house on Snowball Cres., near Markham Rd. and Sheppard Ave. E.
"Get a licence plate," the father yelled out as he ran to tend
to his 60-year-old wife.
"She looked so peaceful like she was sleeping," he said. "The
blood is so bright red.
"I'm screaming. I know she's dead," he said.
"Anton isn't there, so he shot Jean."
His son got a partial licence plate and so did the neighbours.
But with all the support he got that terrible afternoon, Arden-Ray,
59, couldn't thank one homicide detective enough.
"Dan SHEPPARD did an excellent job. And he got massive cooperation
from the community," said a grateful Springer.
"I'd like to reiterate there is no drug activity and no gangs
involved in this killing," said Det.
SHEPPARD.
At a news conference at police headquarters yesterday, homicide
Det. Gary GRINTON said, "It's shocking when you have what I believe
is a truly innocent woman who was… just going about her business,
was not in an area that would be known for violence.
"She was in her home, that's where we're all supposed to be safe."
But he wouldn't comment on whether the accused was, in the parlance
of police, an "emotionally disturbed person."
But a source said police are investigating whether the man had
a history of mental illness.
Altaf IBRAHIM, 26, was arrested at his home near Scarborough
Golf Club Rd. and Brimorton Doctor at 2 a.m. yesterday and charged
with first-degree murder.
He lived alone in a house divided into apartments.
A dishevelled and bearded
IBRAHIM appeared in a Scarborough courthouse
yesterday, wearing an orange jumpsuit. Three of his male relatives
watched anxiously from the back row as two police officers escorted
IBRAHIM in handcuffs into the courtroom, which was packed with
media.
His next court appearance is scheduled for next Tuesday.
Last night in his house, Arden-Ray
SPRINGER was still trying
to cope with his loss. Police had finally let him cross the yellow
police tape to get some clothes before he went to a memorial
service at the Malvern Methodist Church, the same church where
Jean was an elder and a prayer co-ordinator.
At the memorial service, hundreds of teary-eyed mourners remembered
Jean SPRINGER, who had taken part in the women's ministry and
had regularly led prayer time.
"Today we mourn her loss, but our faith calls on us to forgive
others and God has in Christ forgiven us," said Marlon
MITCHELL,
a youth pastor for the church.
Jean, who worked freelance in the accounting field, devoted her
life to Malvern Methodist, a church her husband had even helped
paint in his off-hours while his wife tended to church matters,
said Arden-Ray, a management marketing consultant.
A funeral is expected to be held Saturday at Malvern Methodist
Church.
They had been sweethearts since the mid-1960s when they were
in their teens.
Both were from Trinidad. He met his future wife on a Caribbean
cruise ship.
She'd just graduated from teacher's college. And
SPRINGER's mother
was a stewardess on the ship and his aunt knew Jean's family.
So they arranged for the two to meet.
SPRINGER became the unofficial tour guide for the group of prim
young ladies on vacation.
"Jean and I connected. It was love before first sight. It was
spiritual," he said.
After the two moved to Canada and got married more than three
decades ago, she taught part-time at grade school and studied
accounting at the University of Toronto.
She eventually moved into accounting, he said.
The holidays have all seemed to blur together for Arden-Ray.
New Year's Day was his wife's turn to host more than 20 members
of the family at the Scarborough home where they have lived for
about 28 years.
The couple had spent Christmas and Boxing Day with her two sisters
Willie and Carol. And New Year's was reserved for Jean. It was
tradition.
Last night, as he looked back on that day, he wished he had never
asked her to open that door -- but he bore no malice
"We're devastated, not angry. We do not want revenge, just justice,"
her husband said.
"She was known as Auntie Jean to everybody," he said.
"She was one of the most beautiful people in the world."
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IBRAHIM o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2007-01-07 published
Hundreds mourn 2007's first homicide victim
Family members comfort each other after the funeral of Jean
SPRINGER,
killed when she opened her front door on New Year's Day. Vince
TALOTTA / Toronto Star
By Thulasi
SRIKANTHAN,
Staff
Reporter
In the cold spitting rain, hundreds of mourners gathered at a
Scarborough church to pay their respects to Jean
SPRINGER,
Toronto's
first homicide victim of 2007.
Row upon row was packed with teary-eyed mourners at Morningstar
Christian Fellowship, who prayed and remembered the 60-year-old
as a kind and loving mother of two.
"She was selfless," said her friend, Judy
SUTHERLAND, as she
stood in the cold after the service. "We will miss her but we
will celebrate her life."
SPRINGER was shot to death shortly after she opened her door
on New Year's Day.
Altaf IBRAHIM, 26, was arrested in connection with the shooting.
He is believed to have been a friend of one of
SPRINGER's sons.
At the church yesterday, family members hugged each other as
they waited in the cold and rain, watching the casket being loaded
into the hearse.
Many wiped away tears as they left the service where two photo
collages were on display, filled with pictures of
SPRINGER through
the years, from her childhood days -- to dancing with her husband,
Arden-Ray.
A friend, Judy
INGRID, said
SPRINGER lived her life in a way
that inspired others to want to "model our life after her."
With her warmth, faith and her smile, Ingrid said
SPRINGER drew
many to her.
"From this turnout, you can see."
SPRINGER was born February 9, 1948 to Alva and Gwendolyn
REID
in the Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. As a young girl, she
shone academically.
Eventually, her academic aptitude led her to win a scholarship
to Bishop Anstey High School.
In the years following, she went to Trinidad's Mausica Teachers'
College where she graduated with a teacher's diploma.
After meeting and marrying her husband, she moved to Canada where
she became a bookkeeper and accountant after teaching for a few
years.
In Canada, she raised her two sons, Anton and Anwelle.
SPRINGER was also well known in her community as a woman with
a strong Christian faith. She often led prayers and took part
in the women's ministry at her local church.
"She was a very inspiring lady," said Sandra
MILLER, another
friend who had come to pay her respects.
A viewing for Friends and family was also held yesterday at Ogden
Funeral Home.
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