As Toronto teen lay dying, witness says health centre ignored cries for help

Moments after he was shot in Toronto's Weston neighbourhood Saturday night, a teenage boy lay bleeding out in front of a local health-care centre — and one witness says her repeated cries for help at the facility's front door were ignored. 

Now, Dacota Carriere says she is speaking out to draw attention both to the lack of assistance the teen — identified by police Wednesday evening as Jakhai Jack — received at West Park Healthcare Centre, and to join other witnesses in lamenting long 911 wait times that night as the life slipped from the 15-year-old's body.

"The boy was fighting up until his last moments," Carriere told CBC News Wednesday.

"I truly believe if first responders had come immediately when they were needed, or he got the attention he needed right away, I truly believe he would have survived with the amount of fight he had in him."

Carriere was at the health-care centre at 170 Emmett Ave. Saturday night around 10 p.m. She and some friends, who are car enthusiasts, were taking photos of their vehicles in the parking lot because of its recently renovated lighting.

The University Health Network-run facility is not a hospital, but instead provides specialized rehabilitation care after life-altering illness or injury like amputation, stroke and lung disease, according to the UHN website. A spokesperson told CBC News in an email the facility doesn't have emergency care facilities and during evening hours nurses provide care to inpatient units, while doctors are on call but not routinely on site.

"Should there be an emergency on the property, our first response would involve the attendance of security personnel and/or a call to 9-1-1," Ana Fernandes said in a statement.

Carriere said she and her friends were hanging out in the parking lot when they first heard five gunshots in the distance. Shortly after, a young male came running past and said he had been filming a music video down the street when a shooting happened.

He asked for a ride, but the crowd declined without knowing if the situation was safe, and the male ran off, she said. Then, about five minutes later, a grey Nissan abruptly pulled into the parking lot with an injured teen in the back seat. 

The driver and two other teens got out and pulled the injured boy onto the ground. The driver said he didn't know the boy and then drove away, Carriere said. A neighbour previously told CBC News that he had helped get the victim into a vehicle so that he could be driven to a nearby health facility. 

Panic broke out, and Carriere and her friends started pulling microfibre towels out of their trunks in an effort to stop the bleeding. While the boy's friends applied pressure to his chest wound, she ran to the front door of the health centre hoping to find help.

"I understood that it was a health-care centre and not a hospital who has an emergency department — but still, putting two and two together, there has to be nurses there," Carriere said.

"I see nurses in the lobby, I see security guards. I even made eye contact with many of them. And despite me clearly being in distress, none of them — not one — came outside to help."

Fernandes, UHN's spokesperson, referred questions about the situation to Toronto police, citing the ongoing investigation.