Three youths who took part in the shooting of their friend and dumped him in the Humber River while he was dying have been jailed four years.

They showed “an absolute disregard for the life of their friend,” Ontario Superior Court Justice John McMahon said Thursday before passing the maximum sentence allowed under youth criminal law.

They must spend an additional three years under community supervision.

They pleaded guilty in September to second-degree murder.

More than 10 friends and family of the 17-year-old victim, who can only be identified as A.D., sat in court.

His mother gave an emotional victim impact statement.

“In the stillness of each night the haunting memories of A. come alive, appearing in my thoughts and in my dreams. It leaves me sleepless, deprived of joy, sickened with grief and fear,” his mother said.

“He was my first child. A. met his fate by people he loved.”

On the evening of July, 26, 2010, A.D. went to visit friends in his old Rexdale neighbourhood after moving west of the city with his mother.

The bright, articulate 17-year-old visited the Humberline Dr. apartment building where he used to live, and still had many friends, including D.G. and B.A., both 17, and J.A. 15.

A.D. and his three friends along with a fourth, K.S., walked down the back of another Humberline highrise, when an unspecified dispute arose between him and the others.

In response, one of the teens — it’s not admitted which one — shot him four times with a .25-calibre handgun, intending to kill him, according to an agreed statement of facts.

As he lay on the ground with gunshot wounds, he was stabbed in the neck with scissors.

The teens dumped him into the Humber River, leaving him to die.

They returned to one of their apartments to change clothes. A security camera in the parking garage caught D.G. playing with a gun.

D.G. has also pleaded guilty to possessing an illegal firearm. On Thursday, he rose to apologize to the family.

A walker found the dead teen four days after the shooting near the intersection of Humberwood Dr. and Topbank Rd.

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A pathologist found four gunshot wounds: to the left shoulder, left middle back, left hip and left groin, which caused his death. He had superficial perforations to his neck.

Acting on a tip from K.S., police executed a search warrant at the home of B.A. and found a pair of scissors at the top of a bookshelf. Analysis showed the victim’s DNA on the scissors.