It was all there to see in their hands, if you were paying attention.
Fingers flashed loyalty and pride, but also disrespect.
The 色色啦 teenager had learned the signs from his friends. Two fingers up, five on the other represented the area where he was from. Five up also showed respect for a friendly neighbourhood. Fours down indicated disrespect for another.
It鈥檚 a language. Silent, but loud.
鈥淚 thought it was cool, so I did it, too,鈥 the teen听said later.
But cool quickly turned hot, then deadly, culminating in a fatal shooting nearly three years ago outside a 色色啦 high school.
This is the story, as laid out later in court, of hands, gestures and a gun.
***
A still from video shown in court shows a moment shortly before the accused, in grey, shot and killed Jefferson Guerrier, 18, in a parking lot outside the school on Halloween in 2022.
Ontario Superior Court ExhibitLate one evening听in the fall of 2022,听the teen, a friend and his brother had been walking a dog in their Scarborough neighbourhood when a car stopped suddenly and two gunmen opened fire.
He remembered a TikTok video advising you should run in a zigzag pattern if you’re being shot at. So he did. He made it home unscathed, but a bullet hit his brother.
He had no idea why they were shot at. Something to do with neighbourhoods not liking neighbourhoods.
Regardless, it changed everything.
Now he knew “neighbourhood politics” were real.
The gun he was offered was real, too. A friend handed it to him a week after the shooting. Small, compact, semi-automatic. Grey slide, black handle. Bullets loaded in the magazine.
He knew how to use it. For a time as a kid, he’d lived in Iraq, where people would fire guns in the air at village weddings to celebrate. He fired them too, when his father wasn’t around.
Now, as a teenager back in Canada, his birthplace, he felt he needed one for protection.
“I didn鈥檛 feel safe leaving the house without it.鈥
On the streets, and at school, he kept it tucked in his pants. At home, under his mattress.
He knew it was illegal. Knew it could ruin his future. But he also knew guns go off听鈥 by accident or by intention. So, he kept the safety on. Always.
***
That Halloween, he skipped fourth period. His parents wouldn’t find out听鈥 he’d blocked the school’s number from their phones. Absent, but still at school, chilling by some open doors, his phone played a 色色啦 rapper鈥檚 track: “44K.” He sang along.
A girl he didn’t know gave him a dirty look. She’s from 44, a neighbourhood in Scarborough. “K” stands for kill in some circles. (A notorious 色色啦 diss track called “AvengersK” appeared to include the rapper threatening revenge over the fatal shooting of a fellow rapper.)
But “K” after a name is also used to convey disrespect.
“Yo, you鈥檙e a good kid, stop dissing,” she said, he recalled.
鈥淵ou’re not fours up,鈥 he shot back. 鈥淜ids from 44 don鈥檛 go here. They go somewhere else.”
She started throwing more signs听鈥 fours up, fives down. She was saying where she’s from, and who she disrespected.
He threw up 2-5听鈥 allegiance to his home, also in Scarborough 鈥 and put fours down.
Back and forth. Her fives down, his fours down. Hands talking.
Then words.
鈥淒oes your mom know she raised a waste yute?鈥
鈥淒oes your dad know he raised a whore?鈥
Pulled apart by friends.
He stormed off, venting. “Five down, fours up,” he mimicked into his speaker phone using a high-pitched voice. He told another friend in the hallway about a girl dropping fives and disrespecting his mother. She took off in the direction of the other girl. He followed.
They found her outside. His friend threw her to the ground. She got up, shaking, and threw up 44 with both hands.
He laughed. 鈥淵ou just lost a fight.鈥
Then she swung. Three, four punches. Landed some. He pushed back, grabbing her hoodie, tossing her to the floor again.
The hand signs kept flying. She threw up 44. Put fives down. He flashed 2-5 again. She dropped fives. Back and forth. A hand war.
The gun never left his waist. 鈥淢y life wasn鈥檛 in danger,鈥 he said later. 鈥淒idn鈥檛 feel like I was gonna die.鈥
She slapped him so he grabbed her by her hoodie and threw her to the ground. She got up, put up 44s and punched him. He struck her in the face and threw her to the ground again, captured on surveillance video. More hand signs.
They separated.听
Others not from the school arrived, their purpose that day disputed. Jefferson Guerrier, 18, wore a balaclava, a knife on his left hip. He’d represented 44 on social media. According to the gun-packing teen, the menacing new arrival asked “are you fives up,” and threatened death.
Not in dispute is what happened next. The student flicked the safety and start firing bullets. Four in total. One struck the shooter’s own brother, three hit Guerrier, killing him.
The shooter fled, but was soon arrested and charged with second-degree murder听鈥 his first criminal charge.
***
Almost three years passed. This spring, he pleaded not guilty in downtown 色色啦’s Superior Court of Justice. Now 20, he was tried in youth court because he was 17 at the time, so his identity is covered under a pub ban.听
During the trial, several students testified how they learned about “neighbourhood politics” from 色色啦 rappers, social media and other kids.
His lawyer, Kristen Dulysh, told jurors neighbourhood dynamics were key to understanding what happened on Oct. 31, 2022. Whether clothing, music, or hand symbols, kids in high school want to fit in.听
“They don’t want to stand out, they don’t want to be different, they want to be accepted as part of a group听鈥 they want to belong.” Her client was no different. Growing up as one of five siblings, the family moved around before settling in Scarborough. He experienced culture shock living in both Iraq and Canada. He struggled to make friends, describing himself in court as “odd man out.”
On July 4, a jury acquitted the now 20-year-old of second-degree murder, accepting he was acting in self-defence. The verdict means jurors rejected the prosecution’s theory that he was the aggressor, not the deceased. He was also found not guilty of reckless discharge of a firearm.
He remains in custody and is expected to soon plead guilty to illegal possession of a prohibited firearm.
During his testimony last month, the prosecutor asked him about flashing hand signs with the female student.
“You agree with me it didn’t have to go like that, right?” she asked.
“You’re correct, yes,” he responded.
“Could have just walked away?”
“Yes ... I wish I did.”
