By Connor Luczka
After a shooting rocked a Stratford street earlier this month, the community has come together to support the victims, according to one GoFundMe organizer.
Nicky Mercer started a GoFundMe for her friend, Stephanie Irvine, one of the victims in the Bradshaw Drive shooting on Aug. 1. She said she wanted to start it because Irvine and her late partner, Jonathan Bennett, were new to the city and didn’t have the same network that she does.
“I knew she was going to be having some troubles,” Mercer said. “It's been a long time since Stratford has had something this significant happen. … I'm finding that people are being a little bit more open than what I expected them to be because it was somebody that not many people knew.
“I think that's really good. Just because you don't know them well or they're new to Stratford doesn't mean that they don't deserve just as much help as anybody else.”
Police say Bradshaw Drive resident Ricky Bilcke opened fire on his neighbour, Bennett, after an ongoing dispute on the evening of Aug. 1. He proceeded to shoot David Tokley, another neighbour, and Irvine before turning the gun on himself. Bilcke was found by police dead on the scene and Bennett was pronounced dead in hospital.
Tokley and Irvine were transported to Victoria Hospital in London by ORNGE Air Ambulance for further recovery.
It was Stratford’s first homicide in 20 years.
“She’s doing well,” Mercer said about Irvine, who received injuries from a gunshot to her arm. “She’s recovering. … She has movement in her fingers and they’re really surprised that she's even able to do that.”
As of publication, Mercer’s GoFundMe has raised over $4,000 of its $5,000 goal. Mercer said she made the goal lower than what is actually needed. The money goes directly to Irvine’s expenses like funeral expenses and recovery costs. Irvine will be off work for a time and will have to start from scratch for her children, so costs are expected to be high.
Additionally, Mercer said Irvine doesn’t want to bring her kids back to the same house, so the family is looking for housing in Stratford or close to Stratford.
“I want to get enough for her to help get her off her feet when she gets out,” Mercer said. “Rent’s not cheap. She's going to be struggling. She's not going to be able to work. So, I'm hoping to keep it going until she's at least home from the hospital and then she's got something secure that she has. … You know, in the Stratford (Facebook) groups, one of them has 30,000 people in it. One dollar from each person; it might not be a life changer for other people, but for somebody who's looking at starting from nothing, that's everything.”
Another GoFundMe was started by Kayla Hardman for Tokley, her uncle. As of publication, it has raised a little over $1,400 of its $6,000 goal.
“My uncle was severely injured by getting shot in the head,” Hardman wrote in the description of the GoFundMe. “He was (an) innocent bystander who was outside at the wrong place and wrong time.”
Tokley has gone through brain surgery and faces a long road to recovery. Donations go to help his family, who stayed at a hotel to be closer to Tokley while he was in hospital, and for any expenses that arise due to his recovery, as he won’t be able to work for some time.
Tokley’s GoFundMe can be found at www.gofundme.com/f/help-david-ducky-tokley.
Likewise, Irvine’s GoFundMe can be found at www.gofundme.com/f/stephanie-irvine-and-children?qid=4f2cf3252f2faa4144934afbb6850209.
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