Homicide charges stir memories of downtown-area shopkeeper attack | London Free Press
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El Shorafa was the breadwinner for his family, including a two-year-old daughter and twin sons who were seven. There were fears then that he may never be able to work again.
He was a popular presence in his store’s neighbourhood, SoHo, where he worked seven days a week. A benefit concert and online fundraiser raised more than $20,000 for the shopkeeper, his wife and three children. The family came to Canada in 1994, through Kuwait, after leaving the Palestinian part of Gaza.
McConnell, then 22, had just been released from jail two days before the attack. He pleaded guilty in a Kitchener court to possession of a firearm or prohibited weapon, unauthorized possession of a prohibited weapon and obstructing a peace officer, court records at the time showed.
When McConnell was sentenced in 2018 for the shopkeeper beating, the judge, Jeanine LeRoy, expressed to him the chance to rehabilitate his own life.
“You can decide today to take advantage of the counselling programs available in the penitentiary or you can decide to take advantage of the education, in quotation marks, your fellow inmates will be more than happy to give you,” LeRoy said.
“Everyone in this court hopes you choose the former.”
In this week’s homicide, Pacheco died Monday night after he was stabbed during an altercation at a townhouse complex on Hilton Place, southwest of Dundas Street and Clarke Road in east London, police said.
Pacheco, London’s second homicide victim of the year, was rushed with life-threatening injuries to hospital but died shortly after his arrival, police said.
Police on Tuesday also announced charges against Jonathon Christopher Ysebaert, 27, of London. He is charged by way of warrant with second-degree murder.
Anyone with information about Ysebaert’s whereabouts is asked to call London police at 519-661-5670 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.