- Vaughan, Ontario
- info@zycc.ca
Menu
On Monday, October 6, 2014, Zaid Youssef was one of two high school students shot dead after a schoolyard brawl near Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School in Toronto. He had just turned 17 the previous Friday and had been given a BMW to drive.
Zaid was in his senior year of high school and working part-time at Canadian Tire to save money for his future and university.
Zaid prayed every day, he had good friends, and he cared deeply about his family. He was the only child of Samouie, his mother and her husband, Athir Youssef.
“No one loved his mom like my son when he loved me,” Zaid’s mom said.
He was just a really good kid. Zaid wasn't someone who went looking for a fight
There are no words to adequately express our shock and sorrow at such an event taking place in our city
On that Monday, Zaid had gone to see a fight and tried to flee when guns were drawn. The adolescent was killed in a shocking double homicide in northwest Toronto. He was the city’s youngest gun violence victim in 2014.
Although police in Toronto arrested and charged a 17-year-old boy with attempted murder, the charge has nothing to do with either of the teens’ deaths. Their assailant has yet to be apprehended.
This tragedy has affected everyone in the school community.
His friends had all graduated and gone to college and university, but inside Zaid’s room with his family, time had been stopped. Even the sheets lay on his bed as he left them. His mother would not dust, afraid she would remove his fingerprints. Zaid’s close friends visit often, stopping by to sit in his room and chat with his mother.
His family now hosts a birthday party for him every year, with nearly 100 friends, family, school staff, and students in attendance.
Zaid Youssef Christian Community (ZYCC) organization was created and is supported by his family to carry on Zaid’s legacy and to aid in the end of gun violence amongst youth.
As long as we are living we will continue to celebrate his birthday
Zaid lost his close friend in a car accident on Sep. 10, 2014. He tweeted:
My friend, today you left the world! We all cried for you and we are still crying. Tomorrow if I left, who would cry for me??
I love you my friend. Rest in peace..
The next day, Zaid wrote
Everyday I wake up is a blessing Taking nothing for granted no more
He didn’t realize that he was going to join his friend in less than a month, or that the whole world grieved for Zaid Youssef, not just his friends and family.
This phrase became so popular that the Canadian news reported it after he left. It is also engraved on his tombstone.
On Zaid’s birthday and on the day of his passing, his friends wear t-shirts with his famous phrase every year.
Each and every effort to support the community is greatly appreciated
Providing support to the community members in order to create a sense of closure and harmony to help youth violence prevention
Copyright © 2022 Zaid Youssef Christian Community Association
Proudly powered by iDigi Marketing
