This Saturday, September 26, 2026, community members are gathering to mourn and protest the killing of Kaleym Davy, a Black 19 year-old who was shot and killed by police in Mississauga.
Police killing of Kaleym Davy
On August 6th, while responding to a call about a firearm spotting in The Esplanade, the Toronto Police Service (TPS) tracked a suspect vehicle down to Mississauga. In this vehicle were Kaleym Davy and three of his friends. Initially, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) claimed the Mercedes that Kaleym and his friends were in was stolen, but the SIU had to correct this claim in a later statement.
Plainclothes officers in unmarked police vehicles “became involved in a collision with the Mercedes,” after which a police officer shot and killed the driver, Kaleym. The police then arrested the three passengers. A police officer was taken to the hospital for minor injuries. No relevant further details have been released.
Response by family and community
As Socialist Project put it, “Police have not provided evidence that use of force was necessary and lawful.” Kaleym’s murder is not the first time Toronto police resorted to excessive force to kill a racialized person who did not pose an imminent threat to officers. In 2013, the TPS fired nine shots at 18-year-old Sammy Yatim, who was wielding a switchblade — the first three shots rendered him immobile, but police continued firing, ultimately killing him. In 2015, the TPS shot and killed Andrew Loku, a Black man who was wielding a hammer almost 30 feet away from officers. Both cases brought the TPS under scrutiny for using firearms instead of deescalating the situation.
The SIU in charge of investigating police killings and violence is not likely to deliver the kind of justice that Kaleym’s family and community are seeking. The SIU is notorious for declining to file charges against officers and is staffed with plenty of former police officers, according to a 2008 Ontario ombudsman report. Their error in first reporting that Kaleym and his friends were driving a stolen vehicle further undermines confidence that the SIU will give this case the impartial review that it deserves.
Kaleym’s family has held two previous rallies on August 22 and September 12, calling for accountability from police in the wake of Kaleym’s murder. As Kaleym’s aunt, Elles Moca, wrote on social media, “We want no more silence, no more lies, no more excessive unwarranted and illegal use of force, we want no more violent attacks on our communities, we want the truth, we want transparency, we want the police to take accountability of their actions, we want absolute justice for Kaleym.”
Rally on Saturday
Kaleym is the latest victim in a long line of racist police killings committed by the TPS, including the murders of Yatim, Loku, and Regis Korchinski-Paquet in 2020. The TPS murder of Korchinski-Paquet occurred just two days after the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, an act which sparked global uprisings against police. That same summer, activists gathered outside of TPS headquarters–where Saturday’s rally will be held–and painted “DEFUND THE POLICE” in gigantic pink block letters on College Street. Six years later, the TPS has killed another Black person, and the community will gather once more outside police headquarters to seek answers and accountability.
As countless abolitionists have made clear, and as the murder of Kaleym proves, policing has no place in a world where everybody is safe — not when the police exist to enforce the rules of the racist, colonial, capitalist, exploitative ruling class; not when the police murder Black, Indigenous, and racialized people as a rule and not an exception. Safety comes from strong communities, social services, housing, and other support systems that keep people from turning to desperate measures to improve their material conditions, not from criminalization and violence. To create a world where all of us are safe, we need accountability, answers, transparency, and justice for Kaleym.
Join the community and fight for an end to police brutality by attending the rally on Saturday, September 26, 1pm at 40 College St.
Kaleym’s family is accepting donations to cover funeral and legal costs here.
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