19-year-old in hospital for brain injury following assault Ottowa Citizen genocide. After a phone call from Ottawa police alerted Gasirabo Aug. 29 that her 19-year-old son, Axel Shyaka, had been found severely beaten and abandoned just after midnight near Merivale Road and Caldwell Avenue, she said she did not know where safety was anymore. “We thought we couldn’t have any more problems in life, him and me, we’ve survived many things and we’re the only ones left,” she said. “It shows me we can die anywhere.” She and her son had survived so much, she said, but that Wednesday felt like the end of the world. Police confirmed Monday that an assault incident involving Shyaka and two male suspects was under investigation. Detective Lise Hétu confirmed Shyaka was thrown to the ground and repeatedly punched and kicked. Hétu said there was no gang affiliation to her knowledge but the investigation showed it was not a random attack. Shyaka had no opportunity to defend himself, Hétu said. Gasirabo said her son is being treated for brain injuries at The Ottawa Hospital and has difficulty forming sentences. Investigators have not yet been able to hear his account because of his impaired speech, but Hétu said she hopes he will recover enough to further the investigation soon. Gasirabo said she believed her son’s aggressors wanted him dead, since he has no wounds anywhere but his head. As a nurse, Gasirabo said she knows how permanent and crippling brain damage can be. Hétu said she could not confirm the attacks were specifically aimed to the head but said those were the most serious. Gasirabo described her son as calm, polite and as never having been involved in a fight in his life. She said he appeared to be visiting his girlfriend, who lives in the Merivale area, and may have been on the phone with her at the time he was attacked. According to Hétu, Shyaka was walking alone at the time of the assault. It was unclear whether he had seen his attackers. Hétu said although it appears the suspects were not strangers, she did not yet know the extent to which Shyaka knew the attackers. Shyaka’s two aggressors fled the scene by foot and have yet to be identified. Shyaka was born in Rwanda and moved to Ottawa with his mother where he studied at Collège Catholique Franco-Ouest and took some classes at Algonquin College before dropping out. Shyaka lives alone and was planning to enrol in more Algonquin courses this fall, Gasirabo said. “He is just 19,” she said. “He’s just a teenager like other teenagers, what could he have done to merit this?” Anyone with information is asked to contact the Ottawa Police investigations unit 613-236-1222 ext. 2644. |
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