Mikail Rashid, the 17-year-old who was shot and killed by York Regional Police on Wednesday night, is being remembered by community members in Aurora as a "boy who emulated goodness."
Shujaat Ali Ismail, head volunteer at Mikail’s local mosque, said he was a clever, kind and hard-working kid, who was focused on his studies, and was one of the best volunteers at the mosque.
“He was always very kind and caring with the elders and the younger kids, who used to come and play at the mosque,” he said of Mikail, who he has known since the teen converted to Islam about a year ago. “He was always very friendly, very approachable.”
“The only thing we knew from him was goodness and he was a very righteous kid,” he added.
Ismail said Mikail was always studying and was focused on his goal of attending medical school and then joining the humanitarian charity Doctors Without Borders.
“This boy, who emulated innocence, who emulated goodness, who emulated righteousness, and who emulated intellectual integrity,” he said.
Ismail said the community remains shocked by the death in the days after the Oct. 30 shooting. He said Mikail’s body has been held by the province's Special Investigations Unit as it undertakes its investigation of the shooting, which has prevented the mosque's members from holding funeral prayers.
“His family, his community, we can't even mourn him,” he said. “The community is just in a state of shock.”
One classmate at Dr. G.W. Williams Secondary School in Aurora, who also attended elementary school with Mikail, said he found out the news via a text message from another friend.
"I don't think it's really set in yet, because I don't really think it's real," he said.
Family acquaintance 'disturbed and shocked'
Bijal Ojha’s house on Downey Circle backs onto one of the properties that remained cordoned off Friday morning, as the SIU continues its investigation.
Ojha said she has been neighbours with the family living in the house for close to two decades, her daughter is 19, and the two families are among several young families who grew up in the area.
Ojha said she was a “good acquaintance” with the family, and would sometimes have chats over the garden fence with Mikail’s father, who she described as a nice man.
At the time of the shooting, Ojha initially thought the first round of shots were fireworks, part of Diwali celebrations, but wondered why they were so close. She then heard a second round of shots that “were so loud my whole house is shaking.”
When she went into her backyard to see what had happened, Ojha said she saw several police officers, dressed in SWAT gear and armed with machine guns, who yelled at her to go back inside.
In the wake of the incident, which left her “disturbed and shocked,” Ojha is questioning why someone would have reported a break-in, as Mikail was one of the two people living in the household.
“The boy who died was the boy who was living in the house. I mean why would he break into his own property?”
Ismail had similar questions, saying the community doesn’t feel safe.
The incident remains under investigation by SIU, the civilian police oversight agency in Ontario.
Police responded to a report of a break-and-enter at Downey Circle in Aurora at around 7:45 p.m. on Oct. 30. Soon after officers arrived, there was an “exchange of gunfire” between police and the teenager, who was struck multiple times and pronounced deceased at the scene, the SIU stated.
YRP Police Chief Jim MacSween issued a statement on Friday, offering support to his officers in the wake of the "tragic incident." He also encouraged anyone with information to contact SIU at 1-800-787-8529, or online at https://siu.on.ca/en/appeals.php, or call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.
