http://www.torontosun.com/2014/10/02/community-advocate-likely-giving-advice-when-slain-family-says
Community advocate likely giving advice when slain, family says
BY TERRY DAVIDSON, TORONTO SUN
FIRST POSTED: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 02, 2014 08:49 PM EDT | UPDATED: THURSDAY,
OCTOBER 02, 2014 08:59 PM EDT
Friends and family arrive at the visitation for Nahom Berhane on Thursday,
October 2, 2014. (Craig Robertson/Toronto Sun)
Article
TORONTO - Toronto’s 39th murder victim of the year was a tireless advocate
of the city’s Eritrean community who would regularly mentor youth and new
immigrants at the drop of a hat, family members said Thursday.
But it was this unflagging drive to offer guidance that, in the end, may
have cost him his life, they said.
Family and friends arrived at the Jerrett Funeral Home on Yonge St. in
North York to share memories of 34-year-old Nahom Berhane, who was fatally
stabbed on Danforth Ave, near Greenwood Ave, early last Saturday.
Berhane’s brother and sister said they’ve heard from various friends and
Eritrean community members that their brother — the father of a 13-year-old
girl and an unofficial guardian to another teen — had exited a Danforth bar
and approached a group of young men who had gathered nearby.
Filmon and Salem Berhane said their brother, a social butterfly to his
core, questioned the group as to why they were on the street at such a late
hour and offered them pointers on finding work and furthering their
education.
At least one member of the group didn’t take kindly to such sage advice,
they said.
“At 2:30 or 3 a.m. he must have come out for fresh air or whatever ...
(and) two or three steps down there was a group of guys” Filmon Berhane
said. “He was talking with them and some kid started something with him. He
was just educating them.”
Osama Abdulaziz Filli, 23, was charged Sunday with second-degree murder.
Filmon and Salem insist their brother didn’t know the man now in custody.
“We don’t know who he is, we’ve never seen him,” Salem said, adding her
brother was a natural mentor. “That’s what he did all day. He’d say, ‘If
you’re not in school, go to school’ ... If he did utter anything to anyone
it was go to school or find a job. Everything that came out of him was
positive.”
Behind them, inside the funeral home’s chapel, Berhane lay in a poplar
casket lined with white cloth and topped with a spray of white roses.
Nearby, a group of women in white headdresses huddled together and wept.
Received on Fri Oct 03 2014 - 20:40:22 EDT