THUNDER BAY — A security camera captured video showing two individuals destroying a tree that was planted earlier this year in memory of a young boy.
The video has not yet been made public, but Linda Bruins hopes police can use it to try to identify the culprits.
Bruins, executive-director of Evergreen A United Neighbourhood, helped to organize the planting ceremony in May for the family of 9-year-old Tristan Webb, who died suddenly in 2018.
The boy lived nearby and had been a regular participant at the community centre since he was just a toddler.
The weeping willow was planted in the Ogden-East Simpson Community Garden at 427 Simpson Street, to give the child's family some comfort.
Bruins, who first spotted the vandalism late Thursday, said the incident happened that afternoon.
"My heart just went out to the mother and to the families in the community, because we put a lot of love [into that]. How dare someone do this," she asked.
Jim Stadey of Eat Local Pizza stepped in to purchase and plant a replacement tree over the weekend.
Stadey, a long-time supporter of the garden, said it took him awhile to find a weeping willow at a local nursery.
"I had to go to all the different greenhouses in the city before I finally found one at Kakabeka," he told Tbnewswatch.
- Tbnewswatch
