Oliver Martin, right, and best friend Dylan Ellis, both 25, were gunned down by a mysterious gunman while sitting in a parked SUV on Richmond St. W. in Toronto in June 2008. (Handout)

TORONTO -- The family of homicide victim Oliver Martin said yesterday they were victimized twice: Once by the gunman who killed Martin and his best friend, and again by police, hospital staff and the coroner's office who refused them what they needed to grieve.

Addressing the Toronto Police Services Board, Martin's stepfather, Alan Dudeck, said his family was left in the dark for hours after arriving at St. Michael's Hospital June 13, 2008, and was then denied the chance to see Martin's body.

Martin and best friend Dylan Ellis, both 25, were gunned down by a mysterious gunman while sitting in a parked SUV on Richmond St. W.

Victims' last minutes captured in photo

"Imagine, if you will, receiving a frantic call from a close friend of your son that something horrible has happened to him and you should get down to the hospital immediately," Dudeck said.

FRANTIC CALL

"You get to the hospital as quickly as possible to be greeted by police and hospital staff and are summarily herded into a windowless room with very little information forthcoming."

No crisis intervention team showed up; no police officer explained what was going on; no hospital staff trained in trauma counselling came to their aid, Dudeck said.

"The scene was a nightmare -- not just in terms of the horror of finding out that your son and his best friend were victims of cold-blooded murder, but also in terms of the fragmented and insensitive treatment afforded our families."

Dudeck tabled three recommendations: That it "assess and improve" the capacity to provide more information to and coordinate support services for families of homicide victims; initiate discussions with the coroner's officer to develop procedures that would allow families to see victims' bodies before autopsies; and ensure support resources are "generally more capable" of assisting families.

TAMARA.CHERRY@SUNMEDIA.CA