‘I can’t even breathe’: Mother of shooting victim left in disbelief at her loss

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At times, the words came slowly and softly through deep sobs.

At other moments, the raw emotions led Lordy Exantus to express a river of anger, frustration and disbelief at the sudden loss of her teenage son Quentin Dorsainvil, shot and killed near the corner of Percy and Nepean streets late Sunday night.

“I don’t know, I can’t even breathe,” Exantus said in a telephone interview with the Ottawa Citizen late Wednesday afternoon.

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“I just hope they find the people who did that to my son. Quentin was an innocent boy. Quentin turned 17 on Sept. 6. He never had a problem with anything. Quentin did not deserve to die like that.”

A football star, he was back in Ottawa for only a few days cleaning up some paperwork. He was set to resume his promising career at Florida’s Miami Central high school later this month.

Before the shooting Sunday night, he was with his mother, older brother and two uncles, attending a hip-hop concert at the Bronson Centre featuring Memphis rapper NLE Choppa.

“I was there, I brought him to the concert,” Exantus said, her voice cracking. “I went to get my car and the boys went to get their car.”

The plan was to drive behind each other back to her home in Kanata.

“I called my brother-in-law to know if they had picked up their car. I heard that someone was shot and then they took Quentin to the hospital.”

There has been no update from the Ottawa Police Service since Monday afternoon when Dorsainvil’s death was confirmed.

At that time, police also said a second victim suffered “non-life-threatening gunshot injuries” and was released from hospital.

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“One person is in custody for firearm offences and the investigation is continuing into their potential involvement in the homicide. No charges have been laid at this time,” police said.

On Wednesday, Exantus told the Citizen that the second victim was her son, Quentin’s older brother. She didn’t identify him by name because the police investigation is ongoing.

Exantus was in tears while describing Quentin as a “straight, straight kid” with huge dreams, promising her that he was going to play in the NFL one day and buy her a big house and a new car.

“If I asked for something, he would never tell me ‘no,’ ” she said. “I see kids who say bad words to people. Quentin would never say a bad word. He loved other kids. He loved life.

“I had said, ‘Let’s go to the concert,’ and he said, ‘OK, Mom.’ ”

She says he didn’t enjoy the concert, spending most of the night playing a video game on his cellphone. Then came the post-concert nightmare.

“Why would someone do that to a kid? I had to go to the hospital and leave my son behind,” she said. “I don’t know how to live my life after that. I love my kids so much.”

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Quentin was the youngest of her four children. She also has two daughters.

“All those years at the practice field,” Exantus said. “I lost everything in one night. They took it from me. People out there have to know that our kids aren’t safe. We need safe places for our kids.”

Last Friday, Dorsainvil was back at his old football field, watching his former Kanata Knights teammates play.

Knights president Tina Stevens says his death has hit the football community hard and his friends are struggling to process the news.

“Quentin started playing with us in 2017, when he was 10 years old,” she said. “To see a life taken so tragically in the middle of his journey is so difficult.”

Stevens says the Knights will honour Dorsainvil with a moment of silence before Friday’s games. A GoFundMe account has also been established to help the family.

“Gun violence is in our backyard,” Stevens said. “We have to find a way to protect our kids. We keep seeing more and more of this.”

kwarren@postmedia.com

X: Citizenkwarren

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