Danforth Shooting victims and families forever impacted by the violence of July 22, 2018

By ALAN SHACKLETON

The eighth anniversary of the Danforth Shooting is today (July 22). As family members and others impacted remember those killed and injured, a lawsuit against the manufacturer of the gun used in the shooting has cleared a significant legal hurdle after a decision by the Supreme Court of Canada last month.

The Danforth Shooting took place on the night of Sunday, July 22, 2018, in the area of Danforth and Logan avenues.

East Toronto resident Reese Fallon, 18, and Julianna Kozis, 10, of Markham, were killed in the shooting and 13 other people were injured. The shooter also took his own life that night.

Fallon had graduated from Malvern Collegiate in June of 2018 and was looking forward to studying nursing that coming fall at McMaster University in Hamilton. She was out with a group of friends on the night of the shooting and they were in the Alexander the Great Parkette at Logan and Danforth when the gunman began firing randomly at people on the street and inside businesses.

Among those injured in the shooting that night was Fallon’s friend Samantha Price.

Her father Ken said those who had loved ones killed or injured in the shooting will always be impacted by the events of that night.

“This July 22 will mark eight years since the senseless shooting on Danforth Avenue—the night we lost Julianna and Reese, and so many others were hurt and terrorized,” he told Beach Metro Community News last week.

“For the families and survivors, the consequences are still present in our thoughts.”

Price’s family, and others impacted by the shooting, launched a lawsuit against gunmaker Smith & Wesson in December of 2019 and it has been working its way through appeal courts since that time.

However, one of the final legal hurdles has now been cleared for the class action lawsuit to continue forward after the Supreme Court of Canada said in June that it would not hear an appeal trying to stop it from being certified.

“Recently the Supreme Court of Canada refused to interfere with a Court of Appeal for Ontario decision allowing a class action lawsuit to proceed that some of the Danforth survivors and families launched against Smith & Wesson, the manufacturer of the M&P 40 handgun used that night,” said Price.

“Our civil lawsuit, now a certified class action, contends that Smith & Wesson failed to implement safety technology they had publicly committed to, in order to make their handguns safer and more secure against unauthorized use. We contend that Smith & Wesson’s decisions directly contributed to enabling the violence committed against our community and our loved ones that night. We still grieve our losses and deal with our injuries. At the same time, we look forward to the case moving forward in the coming months.”

The lawsuit is seeking $50 million in general damages and $100 million in punitive damages against Smith & Wesson, which manufactures guns in the United States.

The lawsuit alleges Smith & Wesson did not put existing safety technology into the make of gun (a Military and Police 40 semi-automatic handgun) that was used in the Danforth Shooting. According to the lawsuit, smart gun technology would have prevented the gun being used by anyone other than the legal owner.

The gun used in the Danforth Shooting had originally been legally sold in Canada, but was then stolen from a gun dealer in Saskatchewan in 2015.

The allegations in the lawsuit have not been proven in a court of law.