From grandmothers and uncles to university friends and pals since childhood, they sit together as one unified group, their devastation evident only moments earlier when many break down outside the courtroom’s doors, some weeping openly, others retreating to the washroom to wipe their eyes and try to pull themselves together.
“I didn’t know it was going to be this hard,” one elderly woman, a relative of one of the young men slain, tells me, apologizing for her tears. “I just miss him. Any chance you have some tissues in your purse?”
It’s hardly surprising, this spontaneous surge of emotion. This is, after all, the first time they have come face-to-face with the former friend who allegedly stabbed to death five promising young people on April 15, at what was a low-key gathering to celebrate the end of the post-secondary school year.
