London youth mourned by family as 2nd-degree murder charges laid against 2 other teens

A teenager, who was days away from graduating high school, is instead being mourned by his family and friends after he was allegedly stabbed, and later died, outside of the London apartment building where he lived. 

Two other teenagers, who can't be identified until the Youth Criminal Justice Act, are charged with second degree murder in the death of the young man.

The 18-year-old victim was Zukifili 'Zeko' Abdul Hashim, a student at Sir Wilfred Laurier Secondary School. He came to Canada from Bangladesh as an 11-year-old boy with his only brother in 2017. 

"If you ask me how I remember him, it was that he was the best brother," said Baizid Hashim, who was keeping vigil at a memorial set up for his younger sibling in the parking lot of the housing complex Sunday.

Baizid said witnesses have told him his brother was stabbed multiple times, including in the chest, outside the London and Middlesex Community Housing complex on Southdale Road East and Millbank Drive on Friday at approximately 10 p.m.

Police have not said how the teen died, only that it was the result of a "disturbance".

On Saturday, London police investigators said they had arrested two 17-year-old male youths, who remain in custody ahead of upcoming court appearances.

Hashim's father lives in the same complex as his late son, not far from where ambulance attendants loaded him into an ambulance Friday night. His brother said the family had been at the mosque to pray earlier that evening, and had gathered afterward at their father's home. 

"He's very sad. He's not eating or sleeping and worrying all the time," Baizid said of his father. "My mum lives back home in Bangladesh with all of our family. We want his body to be taken there. It was Zeko's wish when he was alive to see his mum again."

Reached on a video call, with translation facilitated by Baizid, Hashim's mother Dildar Begum said she wants her son buried near her. 

"I want justice for him and I worry about the safety of his brother," Begum said.

London police said the investigation is ongoing, and they are asking for information from the public.