QUOTE: The weapon, Buck said, was homemade, a “non-commercially manufactured” firearm.

can’t buy a gun? No problemo…….

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
PUBLICATION: Toronto Star
DATE: 2004.05.03
SECTION: News
PAGE: B01
BYLINE: Moira Welsh

—————————————————————————–

Husband charged in woman’s slaying

——————————————————————————–

Thirteen-month-old Jayden Loppie learned to walk by holding tight to his mother’s hand.

At a family barbecue Saturday, just before his mother was shot and killed, Jayden was taking steps on his own, even though he was never far from her outstretched arms.

That night, Jayden was inside his grandmother’s house when his mother, 25-year-old Yhonette Ying, was hit by a single shot, leaving her crumpled on the grass outside the co-op townhouse near John Garland Blvd. and Kipling Ave.

An autopsy will be performed today, said Detective Sergeant Chris Buck of the Toronto homicide squad.

The weapon, Buck said, was homemade, a “non-commercially manufactured” firearm.

Ying lived with her common-law husband, Jason Loppie, 24, in a basement apartment on a quiet Etobicoke street, lined with square beige bungalows.

Loppie has been charged with second-degree murder.

The house where she lived belonged to the family of Ying’s close friend, who yesterday could only say, “I loved her.”

Ying spent many days visiting her mother-in-law, Leslie Loppie, at her townhouse on a tiny street off John Garland.

The townhouse has the best location on the street, backing on to a wide swath of grass that leads into Garland Park, a perfect playground for Jayden. And the place where his mother died.

Like most of the families in the co-op, Leslie Loppie had lived there for years, raising two boys into men, working with her husband, often unsuccessfully, neighbours said, to keep them out of trouble when they were teens.

Leslie’s parents live in a townhouse one street over, and most of the neighbours have known the extended family for decades.

Yesterday, a neighbour who grew up in the co-op said she had a long talk with Leslie after the shooting.

“She’s in shock and she’s scared,” said the woman, who didn’t want her name to be published.

“She can’t face Yhonette’s parents.

“She took pictures of the baby because the family is afraid they will never see him again.”

Leslie was supposed to have been leaving for a vacation in Barbados, so the family gathered for a barbecue on Saturday evening, the neighbour said.

Yhonette “worked as a stripper in Etobicoke to pay the rent and buy food and diapers for the baby,” the neighbour said. “She didn’t like it that he (Jason Loppie) sat on the couch all day.”

Just before 7: 30 p.m., neighbours heard one bang.

Some said they didn’t recognize it as a gunshot, when compared to the sharper staccato sounds they often hear from the community of nearby Jamestown.

Debbie McKnight was reading in bed when she heard police shouting and peered out the window. She saw a man in handcuffs being led to a cruiser. “He was covered in blood, on his face, his hands and his coat.”

Yhonette was taken to Sunnybrook hospital where she was pronounced dead. Her son was taken one street over, to his great-grandparents’ house.

“She loved that little boy so much,” said the neighbour.

“I don’t think we’ll ever know why this happened.”