‘I want justice for my son,’ says mother of murdered CDN-NDG teenager

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The last time Charla Dopwell saw her son Jannai was early Monday morning when he woke up at an unusually early hour in an effort to impress her.

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Dopwell, a healthcare worker, said her 16-year-old son was already dressed and that she told her she wanted to show him that he could follow his morning routine without her having to wake him up and inspect him to make sure he was dressed. appropriately for school.

The Côte-des-Neiges-Norte-Dame-de-Grâce resident was impressed, but advised her son to go back to bed because it was still too early for him to get up.

“Normally, it always woke him up. If he doesn’t wake up, he’ll be late for school, ”said Dopwell.

It was the last time Dopwell saw his son alive. Later that day, she got the kind of call that is any parent’s worst nightmare. The person on the other end of the line was someone from Montreal police who informed him that his son, Jannai Dopwell-Bailey, 16, had been stabbed.

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The boy was taken to a hospital, where he died.

According to Montreal police, Jannai was fatally stabbed during an altercation with other teenagers outside his school, Program Mile End High School, on Van Horne Ave. The program is part of the English Montreal School Board and offers students a fresh start after having had difficulties in regular school.

“It started there in September,” Dopwell told the Montreal Gazette. Before starting the Mile End program, she had attended Lauren Hill Academy in the St-Laurent district for two years and then John F. Kennedy High School on Villeray St. E.

Dopwell said her son, who had three siblings, struggled at both schools, but was encouraged to receive a call from the principal of Hampstead Elementary School on Tuesday.

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“The principal said he was a real leader (while at Hampstead Elementary). He said they want to do something in his memory, something that he will be remembered for. Everybody is calling, ”Dopwell said, as a phone could be heard ringing in the background as she was being interviewed on the phone.

“He loved rapping and dancing, especially dancing. (When I was a kid) I was so quiet, so quiet.

“I want justice for my son. I don’t want this to happen to any other mother again. “

Dopwell said that while trying to cope with the loss of her son on Tuesday, she was shocked when she was informed that teens had started posting videos on social media mocking her death.

“There is one with a boy (with a mask) holding a knife and stabbing (in the air). There’s another where you can hear Jannai rapping in the background and someone is making fun of him. I can’t believe it, ”Dopwell said while sobbing.

Dopwell said her son did not tell her if he had previously been involved in any conflict before he was stabbed. He said that when he came home from work, he usually found it in two places: his room or in Kent Park.

A Montreal police spokesman said that, as of Wednesday morning, no arrests have yet been made in the investigation.

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