For a few weeks, a bundle of flowers placed on the side of a quiet Aurora street served as the sole reminder that a 22-year-old man was shot dead by police on a rainy night last month.

Now, five weeks after the shooting, even those are gone, while little remains known about the incident — most notably, who was killed.

At the request of his family, the young man’s name is being kept secret.

The province’s Special Investigations Unit, the agency that probes deaths involving police, is investigating the shooting, which occurred just before 9 p.m. on April 12.

York Regional Police had received a report of a man with a gun walking in the area of Leslie St. and State Farm Parkway, and at the time believed he may have shot people.

The SIU said officers fired at the man, reportedly after he walked toward them with a gun. He was later pronounced dead in hospital; emergency officials said he was shot twice in the chest.

But while the identities of those killed by police are often released by either the SIU or the affected family — in the shooting death of Sammy Yatim by Toronto police officer James Forcillo, for instance, the SIU released Yatim’s name within two days — the name of the man killed in Aurora remains unknown.

His family has asked that it not be released, according to the SIU.

“In this case the family has not consented to its release and we are respecting their wishes,” SIU spokeswoman Jasbir Brar wrote in an email.

The SIU policy requiring familial consent — developed after conducting thorough research, said Brar — remains in place even after the investigation into the shooting is completed. That means the SIU will put out a final news release including the results of the investigation, without disclosing the identity of the person killed.

Brar added the identity could be released through a coroner’s inquest examining the death.

York Region police, meanwhile, cannot release the name of the victim because of the ongoing SIU investigation.

Asked if the force would release the name after completion of the probe, police spokesman Andy Pattenden said the SIU is the “lead agency in this investigation (and) we respect their policy.”

Peter Rosenthal, a lawyer who represented the family of O’Brien Christopher-Reid, shot and killed by police in 2004, said there is “serious public interest” in knowing what occurred in a police shooting.

But he believes the family’s wishes should be respected. Provided the SIU releases the results of the investigation, he said the agency has struck a “reasonable compromise.”

Following the death of her son, Trevor Graham, who in 2007 was shot dead by Waterloo police, Karen Greenwood-Graham formed a support group called Grief2Action, offering counselling to families of those killed in police shootings. After the Aurora shooting, she and others in the group attempted, unsuccessfully, to get in touch with the young man’s family to offer support.

While she said it’s “troubling” to think that a police shooting could quietly occur, she agreed that the family’s wishes should be respected.

Along Leslie St., a quiet, sparsely populated road that would seem rural without the nearby big box shopping centre, residents have been awaiting news about the shooting.

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Mary Hill’s home was cordoned off for hours after the incident, prompting a surprise sleepover with her grandkids because their parents couldn’t access the house to pick them up. Like many in town, Hill wants details about the shooting, including which family has been affected.

“There’s no talk in the town about names, nobody knows,” she said.

“Living here,” said Ralph Brunner, who lives up the road from Hill, “we would like to know what happened.”

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