Community rallies in support of teen fatally stabbed on Nuns' Island
The 17-year-old man who was found dead in a wooded area on Nuns' Island Monday morning had been fatally stabbed, according to Montreal police. On Tuesday evening, police said the death has been ruled a homicide as a result of their investigation.
The teen, whose name has not yet been released by police, was a hard-working CEGEP student who was well-liked in the neighbourhood, according to community members.
Mourad Bendjennet, the administrator of the Al Jazira Islamic Centre, was so moved by the teen's death that he created an online fundraiser to help his mother get back on her feet and to pay for funeral costs, including sending her son's body to be buried in Morocco.
More than $5,000 of the the $10,000 goal has been collected, as of Tuesday.
Bendjennet said the teen's mother is coping as well as can be expected.
"She considered him her baby, even if he was 17," he said. "He was a [joyful] boy and a good guy."
Another Nuns' Island resident, Roula Ta, told CBC the youth was good friends with her sons.
"He was nice, generous and warm," she said in a Facebook Messenger exchange.
Bendjennet said the teen worked at the local Tim Hortons and also picked up shifts at the IGA grocery store on Nuns' Island while attending CEGEP.
The 17-year-old's mother was in shock after she heard the news Monday, Bendjennet said, and had to go to the hospital because of health issues that were aggravated by her situation.
She has another son who is 20, and she raised both sons on her own after moving to Quebec from Morocco a decade ago, Bendjennet said.
He said the family has lived on Nuns' Island for about eight years. The teen's body was found just a five-minute walk from his home and a few steps away from the École Île-des-Sœurs elementary school.
Paths in the woods where he was found connect to several different neighbourhoods on the island and are heavily used as shortcuts to catch a bus or go to school, residents told CBC News.
Police initially suggested that the man's death was an accident, but later ruled it the city's 27th homicide of 2018.
With files from CBC's Verity Stevenson.
