WARMINGTON: Tattoo shop owner dinged with $7Gs bill after Danforth shooting
Joe Warmington
More from Joe Warmington
Published:
July 28, 2018
Updated:
July 28, 2018 11:51 AM EDT
For Tanya Wilson, the cost of being a hero is at least $7,000.
And perhaps, lost business, if she can’t find a way to get it back open.
The good news is Mayor John Tory has heard about her plight and assistance may be on the way.
“I didn’t really want to have any focus on me in light of the fact that people died and others are injured,” the 30-year-old tattoo artist said in an interview.
But the reality is her Skin Deep Tattoo studio at 345 Danforth Ave. remained closed again Thursday.
Thanks to her bravely opening up her shop as a safe sanctuary during last Sunday’s deadly shooting spree that killed two people and wounded 13 others, two victims are alive today.
Screengrab of GoFundMe for Tanya Wilson. GoFundMe)
“It was a mother and her (adult) son,” Wilson said. “They had both been shot in the leg.”
Wilson, who has been in business two years, brought them in, locked the door and began treating them. She said she tied T-shirts around the top of the gunshot wounds while she called 911 for help.
“I just tried to calm them down.”
She said it took about an hour for EMS to get to them, but “Toronto Police officers did a great job helping out.”
They had tourniquets as part of their equipment and applied them.
The problem now is because blood was spilled in her studio, and thanks to the nature of her tattoo business, she’s been shut down until a professional crime scene cleaning company sterilizes her studio and equipment.
“I understand,” she said.
The problem is it costs a minimum $7,000.
“It’s a lot of money for a small business like mine.”
She has consulted her insurance and has been told that it could cost her even more should she pay her deductibles and endure the higher rates that will stem from such a critical incident happening there. It’s the kind of dilemma no one could possibly foresee.
But Tory, who “believes she is a hero,” has stepped in to see what the city can do to help out the businesswoman. The mayor’s office has “been speaking to city officials and Toronto Police about what happened and what can be done to help,” Tory spokesman Don Peat said.
“I can tell you that city officials from the Community Crisis Response Program are working to reach out to Tanya Wilson and want to help her reopen her business,” Peat said.
On Wednesday, Tory told city council, “Tanya Wilson … helped people find safe harbour in her Danforth business and helped to treat two people who had been shot, until paramedics could arrive.”
This will add to the crowdfunding campaign her friends started to help her get back on her feet.
Wilson told me she’s appreciative but not all that comfortable with a fundraising effort.
“I think there are others in this who are in more need of help,” she said.
It’s still unclear how much it will cost to get her shop operational, but Toronto Police spokesman Meaghan Gray said Wilson may be eligible for some financial help from Victim Services Toronto.
Whatever is done, the goal is to get her back up and running at her Skin Deep Tattoo as soon as possible.
CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH KILLER
He could have easily been one of the victims in her shop.
A business owner whose restaurant is around the corner from Tanya Wilson’s Skin Deep Tattoo — has been supporting Wilson in her quest to get her doors back open.
Mr. Singh (he asked that his first name not be used), the owner of legendary Sher-E-Punjab restaurant, commended Wilson on her bravery for “helping out” badly wounded victims –something he came very close to being himself.
Extremely close.
He was walking toward his restaurant Sunday night when shooter Faisal Hussain came up behind him.
“He was following me. When we got to the end of the alleyway, he said, ‘Don’t worry, I am not going to shoot you,’” Singh recalled.
Singh said he responded to Faisal with a “thanks” and when the two men got closer together, “We looked at each. He said to stay out of his way — not as a threat, but as a warning.”
He doesn’t know why Hussain didn’t shoot him, but said “my heart breaks” for all of the victims of the killer, whom he had such a frightening close encounter with.
jwarmington@postmedia.com
[youtube]Q1ZC_U1tbNA[/youtube]
http://gofundme.com/help-tanya-wilson-with
http://torontosun.com/news/local-ne...wner-dinged-with-7000-after-danforth-shooting
Danforth mass shooting victim may never walk again
Jane Stevenson
More from Jane Stevenson
Published:
July 27, 2018
Updated:
July 27, 2018 5:57 PM EDT
Danielle "Dani" Kane, 31, suffered a life-altering injury and may never walk again after being among the 15 victims shot in Greektow, on the Danforth, on Sunday, July 22, 2018. (GoFundMe)
A 31-year-old Toronto woman who used to work in the ER might never be able to walk again after becoming one of the 15 victims in Sunday night’s Danforth mass shooting.
According to the #DaniStrong GoFundMe page, Danielle “Dani” Kane, previously an ER clerk at Toronto East General who just completed first year as a nursing student, was out dining with her boyfriend and TEG nurse Jeremy Pinksen, at 7Numbers restaurant with a good friend.
The trio heard gunshots and someone came running inside saying a girl had been shot.
Pinksen went running outside to help and met eye-to-eye with the shooter, now identified as 29-year-old Faisal Hussain who later died.
“He recalls hearing a clicking sound and seeing him lift his arms towards him,” write the Kane Family on the GoFundMe page.
“He ducked behind a patio table but then heard a scream. Dani had just opened the door and was shot in the doorway of the restaurant. Her boyfriend looked over to see her on the ground, went to her and brought her back inside the restaurant with the help of others. He began administering first aid.”
According to her family, Kane was the last civilian shot that evening. The bullet shattered her T11 vertebrae, and pierced her stomach and diaphram.
Danielle “Dani” Kane, 31, suffered a life-altering injury and may never walk again after being among the 15 victims shot in Greektow, on the Danforth, on Sunday, July 22, 2018. (Twitter)
They say she’s undergone three surgeries, with a fourth one to go, and is expected to survive but may never walk again.
She is described by her family as someone in constant movement who loves to travel, hike and dance.
“Dani’s smile and infectious energy, lights up every room. She’s a lively, rambunctious, determined and ambitious young woman,” they write on the GoFundMe page.
“And her natural generosity and warmth gives her the special ability to make everyone she meets feel important and loved. Now, at the young age of 31, Dani faces the most difficult challenge of her life. “
The GoFundMe Page, set up by Kane’s cousin Byron Abalos, had reached $75,540 of its $100,000 goal by late Friday afternoon.
“Dani left the safety of the restaurant to see if she could help someone in need,” her family writes. “This is who she is. We are proud of her courageous and selfless act and yet, we are also unsurprised at her actions because she always stands up for those who need help. Now, we ask you to help stand up for Dani.”
Abalos told CBC news he was “completely devastated, like the rest of our family,” by the shooting.
“It’s still unbelievable. She’s hooked up to dozens of machines, her body is a bit pale and it’s puffy from all the fluid.”
Abalos told the CBC Pinksen “is incredible (but) he does not want this to be about him and his actions and there’s complicated feelings about this decision to go out and her following him. But to me they were both doing something to help someone else.”
jstevenson@postmedia.com
http://gofundme.com/danistrong
http://torontosun.com/news/local-news/danforth-mass-shooting-victim-may-never-walk-again