Jordan Cristillo

My CTV colleague John Woodward is a true professional who brings humanity to his reporting. After spending his entire day in court listening to victim impact statements, he kindly took a few minutes to speak with me about a family facing life without their father. Hearing him describe three little girls asking their mother what Daddy is eating in heaven gave me goosebumps. This is why these conversations matter. There are no do-overs, no going back. The carnage is real. The grief is real, and it lasts a lifetime. I’ve seen it far too many times. Thank you, John, for helping our viewers understand the human cost. Thank you to xyz for sending me this.

Today, outside the courthouse, I spoke with Jordan, Andrew’s brother, after he delivered his victim impact statement. His brother was killed. His three nieces were seriously injured. Like Jennifer Neville-Lake and sadly many others, Jordan never asked to be in this position. Yet here he is, a voice of reason, speaking from the lived experience of unimaginable loss. His strength and resolve were extraordinary. So were his pain and devastation. They reverberated through me, taking me right back to my days in homicide, standing with families whose lives had been shattered forever. Now he waits for a sentence that can never restore what was taken. Whatever the punishment, it is difficult to imagine it feeling adequate to a family facing a lifetime of loss. Whether through reckless or impaired driving, gun violence, or another senseless act, the devastation you cause does not end when the court proceedings do. It follows families home. It stays with them for the rest of their lives. As I have said so many times, there is no closure. There is learning to live with something you should never have had to endure. Speaking with Jordan today was heartbreaking and gut-wrenching. God bless this young man and his family.