The family and friends of a 10-year-old boy killed in a Brampton townhouse fire last year are heartbroken and angry after a memorial dedicated to him was trashed twice in the matter of a few days.

Nicolas Gabriel was sleeping over at a friend’s home on Ardglen Drive, near Queen Street and Kennedy Road, when a fire started in the unit early on the morning of June 8, 2014.

The fire spread throughout the row of townhouses.

Nicolas was the lone fatality.

A memorial, which included several of the boy’s stuffed animals, toys, and other sentimental trinkets, was placed near the scene of the fatal fire on Monday. Family and friends also released balloons in his memory.

Hours later, the memorial was trashed, with the items tossed over a fence into a construction site.

The items were recovered and the memorial was put back up, but on Wednesday it was gone again. Nicolas’ father later found the items buried at the bottom of nearby dumpster.

The boy’s grandmother was devastated by what she considers a cruel and callous act.

“He was my grandson, how would people feel if it was their child or their grandchild…and people did that to them?”

The property manager at the memorial site said they had no issue with it, leaving the boy’s family to believe a neighbour was responsible.

Family friend Barbara-Anne Smith expressed her disgust.

“My personal opinion is that it’s a form of hatred and disrespect against a 10 year old boy,” she said.

“There was plenty of time for your conscience to kick in and remind yourself of what a despicable act you were committing against the memory of an innocent.”

For now the memorial is back up, and the family says they will remove it on Saturday as originally planned.

“To give them seven days to grieve and be at peace is really no skin off anybody’s nose,” said Smith.