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The mother of one of the victims shot in the deadly attack on the Danforth last weekend said she fears her daughter may never be able to walk again.
Jocelyn Kane, the mother of 31-year-old nursing student Danielle ‘Dani’ Kane, said her daughter was eating dinner on the Danforth with her boyfriend last Sunday night when they heard the gunshots.
She said the pair learned that someone had been injured outside and Danielle’s boyfriend, who works as an emergency room nurse, went to help.
Once outside, her boyfriend spotted the gunman and managed to duck out of the line of fire. The woman’s mother said her daughter was not so lucky.
“Danielle didn’t see. I guess he came from the side and hit Danielle,” Kane told CP24 on the Danforth last night.
“The bullet actually exited her spine and severed her (eleventh thoracic vertebra).”
Kane said her daughter remains in a medically-induced coma at the Trauma and Neurosurgery Intensive Care Unit at St. Michael’s Hospital.
“We still don’t know if she is going to be able to walk again,” her mother said tearfully.
“Of course, miracles happen every day.”
A GoFundMe page titled #DaniStrong has been set up to help cover the costs of the young woman’s ongoing care.
“I’m sure she is going to have to go through a lot of rehabilitation,” her mother said. “Her life has been taken away from her in a millisecond.”
The 31-year-old’s boyfriend Jerry Pinksen, who was with her when she was shot, told reporters Sunday that he wants his girlfriend to know he will never leave her side.
“I was constantly telling her I was sorry. I was sorry. I was sorry she was in this position and she kept telling me it is going to be OK, I don’t blame you. I don’t blame you. I don’t blame you,” he said in an emotional interview outside the downtown hospital where she is receiving treatment.
“I just want to tell her she is safe, I love her, and there is a whole community our there supporting her.”
Kane is one of 13 people wounded after a gunman opened fire on the Danforth one week ago. The attack claimed the lives of a 10-year-old girl and an 18-year-old woman. The gunman died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, a source previously confirmed.
