“I cannot imagine what they’re going through.
“I lost my daughter for about 15 minutes at the PNE when she was two. I can’t imagine what it’s like to have your child taken away from you under these circumstances.”
Burnaby RCMP Supt. Chuck McDonald was pretty much speaking for every parent in Burnaby when he uttered those words at a press conference held Wednesday to update the media on the investigation into the killing of 13-year-old Marrisa Shen.
That a young girl could be randomly attacked and killed right here in our safe and familiar city, close to her own home, seems inconceivable.
Chances are, every parent in the city held their children just a little closer after they heard the news of the homicide last week.
Chances are, every parent in the city now lives with a fear they didn’t have before – or, at least, a fear they didn’t acknowledge.
It’s tempting to just refuse to allow our children to go anywhere or do anything until this case is solved.
But now is not the time to shut ourselves up in our homes and lock our doors to keep out that fear.
Now’s the time for the community to rally and face this together.
We need to do everything we can to help in the police investigation – by letting the police do their jobs, and by responding to their calls for information. Right now, investigators are looking for any video or photos people may have taken in the area that night – with their smartphones, or on a dash-cam – in case the footage has even a small bit of information that could be useful.
We need to take steps to keep ourselves and our children safe (see some safety tips from the police on page 5).
And, more importantly, we need to look out for each other. We need to keep an eye on our friends and neighbours – whether it’s by offering a ride home to your child’s teammate when their parent can’t make it to pick them up after practice, or by stopping to offer directions to a lost stranger at the SkyTrain station.
We cannot bring Marrisa back. We cannot make this OK for her family and her friends.
But we can make sure our community remains just that: a community.
