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Brett Broadfoot had a clear message for the crowd gathered at a northeast London park: Everybody needs to take action to stop intimate partner violence.
The grieving father of homicide victim Breanna Broadfoot, 17, spoke to the more than 200 people attending a candlelight vigil Wednesday night at Ed Blake Park.
“The message here this evening . . . is not to be afraid to help others,” he said. “If it was your mother, your sister, your brother, your aunt, anybody in your family you would be there to support them. It should be no different if it’s a stranger . . . Don’t put your head in the sand. Do what you can.
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“We can’t continue to ignore the signs.”
Breanna Broadfoot died in hospital on July 18, two days after she was stabbed along with a 22-year-old man by her boyfriend at his east-end house. The 22-year-old man was treated and released from hospital.
London police responded to the stabbing at about 11 p.m. on July 16 at 86 Wellesley Cres. Two officers fired shots at a man armed with a knife who later died in hospital, said Ontario’s police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit.
Neither police or the SIU have released the name of the man, but court documents identified him as Kuhkpaw Moo.
Breanna, a student at Sir Frederick Banting secondary school, was remembered as a fierce and brave young woman who aspired to become a child psychologist.
Her brother Lucas, 15, described his old sister as his best friend and recalled their routine of waking up early on Christmas morning to open their stockings together.
“She made everything better and so much more enjoyable,” he said. “Our home will never be the same but we see you looking down on us every minute. We love you.”
There was a strong police presence at the vigil including Chief Thai Truong, who hugged Breanna’s mother Jessica at the end after the crowd sang This Little Light of Mine.
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No mention was made of Moo during the vigil except when Brett Broadview referred to him as “the monster that took her away from us.”
Court records show Moo was arrested on March 15 and charged with assault and assault with choking for an alleged attack on Broadfoot one day earlier. He was released on an undertaking – a document created by either a court or police that puts an accused under certain conditions, the documents say – that ordered him not to contact Broadfoot, go within 50 metres of her home, workplace or school, or possess weapons.
The head of the London Abused Women’s Centre applauded the Broadfoot family for publicly speaking out against intimate partner violence.
“There’s always more that needs to be done to make things better for the future,” executive director Jennifer Dunn said.
dcarruthers@postmedia.com
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