The Gazette (Montreal)
April 12, 2005 Tuesday
Final Edition
Metro mugger needs love – not prison, supporters say: Youth who
shoved 90-year-old down stairs a victim of parental negligence, court
hears
SUE MONTGOMERY, The Gazette
Emrys Brooks Djierdjian made a terrible mistake when he robbed a
90-year-old woman and shoved her down some stairs, but he is a teen
in need of love and support, not prison time, say friends and
neighbours from his small village who have stepped forward to take
him under their collective wing.
The 18-year-old, who pleaded guilty to armed robbery, is a victim of
parental negligence, said Andre Lamarre, one of 17 residents of St.
Alphonse de Rodriguez, who showed up at Quebec Court yesterday to
vouch for the teen.
“I know he is a good person, but he lacked what all children need to
become a good citizen.”
Lawyer Marie-Laure Braun has asked that her client be released on
bail until he is sentenced.
Quebec Court Judge Jean-B. Falardeau is to render his decision
tomorrow.
An only child, Brooks Djierdjian attended school for just half a year
throughout the primary years, said supporter France Pellerin. His
Armenian father and anglophone mother kept him at home, so he never
developed normal social skills.
“When one of the neighbours had him over for dinner, he didn’t know
how to use cutlery and he put his arms around his plate, as if to
protect it, as if someone would take it from him,” she said.
“Where was the department of youth protection? Where was the school
board? Why didn’t anyone do anything to help him?”
Pellerin and others from the village of 2,000, 60 kilometres north of
Montreal, said they decided as a group that instead of sitting back
and watching bad news on television or reading about it in the paper,
they would take some responsibility as members of society.
They’ve raised money to pay for any therapy Brooks Djierdjian needs.
One has offered him a job.
Even the victim, Gemma Martel, who suffered a fractured pelvis,
broken arm and bleeding in the brain, has written a letter of
forgiveness to her aggressor, said supporter Catherine Ruiz-Gomar.
“If this society believes in rehabilitation, then we need to give
people the means to do it,” Lamarre said.
Those who know him describe Brooks Djierdjian as an intelligent teen
who reads a lot, is interested in the world and is not prone to
violence.
“He doesn’t have the profile of a criminal or someone who is
rebelling,” said Lamarre, who has taught CEGEP for 33 years.
“Perhaps, mentally, he’s a bit younger, but he needs compassion and
support to develop.”
Brooks Djierdjian’s life was made even more difficult when his mother
committed suicide in 2003.
When the boy turned 18, in January, his father dropped him in
Montreal with $100 in his pocket in order for him “to become a man,”
Pellerin said.
After the mugging at the Berri-UQAM metro station, police confirmed
Brooks Djierdjian had been living with friends downtown for a few
weeks.
The teen’s father, artist Berdj Djierdjian, has been present at his
son’s court dates, and admits the young man has had a hard life.
His mother was mentally ill and refused to speak to her son in the
years before her suicide, he has said.