'Please say something': A year after her son was shot and left for dead, a mother issues an emotional plea
For the past year, Adrienne Naraine has searched for solace in a parking spot — it's where she feels closest now to her son, who took his last breaths there after he was shot by a killer still not brought to justice.
"I go there often, usually a couple times a week, and sit in the parking spot with Amir's favourite drink. We talk, me and Amir, and I feel closer to him," Naraine said.
"I tell him that he didn't die alone, that I was always with him," she said in a news release on the anniversary of her son's death.
On Sept. 29, 2019, 21-year-old Amir Naraine was discovered in the back of his car almost a full day after he was shot, driven to a west-end Toronto plaza and abandoned. Investigators have said they believe Naraine was shot at a separate location, then brought to the parking lot around midnight.
Det.-Sgt. Andy Singh with the Toronto police's homicide unit has said Naraine may have in fact been alive when the vehicle entered the Kipling Avenue lot.
'We need their cooperation'
But it wasn't until that evening that police received a 911 call. Surveillance footage later captured a person driving up to the vehicle that evening, looking into the car window and then leaving the scene around 7:25 p.m. Police were called around 7:30 p.m.
A year later, Singh says, it's still not clear who shot Naraine, who left him at the plaza, or who had looked into his vehicle on the evening when he was found.
"What truly is critical here is that those individuals themselves finding the courage and obviously to do the right thing and to come forward and speak to the events that happened prior to the car being dropped off there," Singh told CBC News. "And for that we need their cooperation."
As for a motive, Singh said, that's still not clear. Investigators say multiple shots were fired at Naraine, but the circumstances remain unknown.
The lack of answers has left his family "completely distraught," said Singh.
"One year after Amir was killed, it feels like I need to wake up from this horrible, horrible dream I've been having," his mother said.
'Too big of a force to be taken from us like this'
Naraine, his mother said, had big dreams: he wanted to pursue a zoology program, he wanted to make his mother a grandmother.
"Amir was too big of a force to be taken from us like this. He was the guy you wanted everywhere with you. He was the one that brought all the laughter, all the smiles, all the goofy moments," she said.
"[He] was so amazing and continues to be so amazing because the strength he carried in life has carried me through the last year. So many times I've broke, and so many times he's brought me back," she said. "I can still hear him. I can still feel him."
With no arrests made in his case and no suspects yet identified, Naraine's mother issued a singular plea to anyone with information about his death.
Tips can also be sent anonymously by calling Crime Stoppers (416-222-TIPS).
"He had many friends who he cared for deeply, who he considered brothers. I'm appealing to those friends today, the ones who know what happened. Please come forward, " Naraine's mother said.
"Please say something and let Amir go peacefully."
