Mourners packed a Burnaby, B.C., funeral home Thursday afternoon to pay their respects to Christopher Mohan, an innocent victim of a recent gangland shooting.
Friends and family set free white and red balloons to the sky, symbolizing Christopher Mohan's free spirit.
(CBC)
The 22-year-old was remembered as always being supportive, a wonderful young man who loved sports and made people laugh, but his death in a Surrey highrise on Oct. 19 makes his mother angry.
"My son would have been alive if laws of this country were tough enough," Eileen Mohan wrote in a speech delivered at her son's funeral.
"Everybody is here to pay respects for a great friend, a person who was there for everybody else," said Mohan's best friend Faraz Khan.
Police said Mohan, who lived next door to the suite where the gang-style shootings took place, was one of two innocent victims in the Balmoral Tower massacre.
He and fireplace serviceman Ed Schellenberg, a 55-year-old father of two, had no connection to the other shooting victims Edward Narong, 22, Corey Lal, 21, his 26-year-old brother Michael and Ryan Bartolomeo, 19. The four were described by police as having criminal lifestyles.
About 500 people filled a funeral home in Burnaby, B.C., to remember Christopher Mohan.
(CBC)
Mohan and his family lived in the building, and Schellenberg was servicing fireplaces in the apartments.
"Ed and Chris's life would have not ended so tragically had the justice system done its duty," Eileen Mohan said in her speech.
"Instead (of) putting these criminals away, they were let go again and again out amongst us — and this is the result … Yes, I am an angry mum."
About 500 people filled a funeral home in the Vancouver suburb to overflowing — women in traditional Indian saris contrasting with young women in the latest designer fashions.
Members of the media were asked to remain outside during the service.
With files from the Canadian PressRelated
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