Football community mourns teen player killed in Centretown shooting

Quentin Dorsainvil, a former player with the Kanata Knights and Cumberland Panthers football clubs, was shot and killed on Sept. 15, 2024. (coachschmidty37/cumberlandpanthers/Instagram - image credit)
Quentin Dorsainvil, a former player with the Kanata Knights and Cumberland Panthers football clubs, was shot and killed on Sept. 15, 2024. (coachschmidty37/cumberlandpanthers/Instagram - image credit)
Quentin Dorsainvil, a former player with the Kanata Knights and Cumberland Panthers football clubs, was shot and killed on Sept. 15, 2024.
Quentin Dorsainvil, a former player with the Kanata Knights and Cumberland Panthers football clubs, was shot and killed on Sept. 15, 2024.

Quentin Dorsainvil, a former player with the Kanata Knights and Cumberland Panthers football clubs, was shot and killed on Sept. 15, 2024. (coachschmidty37/cumberlandpanthers/Instagram)

Two days before his death, Quentin Dorsainvil was at the Nepean Sportsplex, cheering on his friend and former teammate Zander Stevens as he had done many times before.

"You'd always hear him in the crowd cheering when something big happened," Stevens said.

Stevens couldn't know that Friday would be the last time the two childhood teammates would be together.

On Sunday evening, Dorsainvil, 17, was shot and killed near Percy and Nepean streets in Centretown, leaving Ottawa's football community in shock.

No charges have been laid for his death.

"He was always a very joyous person to be around," Stevens said.

Dorsainvil joined the Knights in 2017 and played as a lineman, said president Tina Stevens.

The Ottawa football community is in mourning following the shooting death of 17-year-old Quentin Dorsainvil in the residential part of Centretown Sunday night.
The Ottawa football community is in mourning following the shooting death of 17-year-old Quentin Dorsainvil in the residential part of Centretown Sunday night.

Dorsainvil played football for Kanata and Cumberland and had gone to play in Florida. (Submitted by Tina Stevens)

After his first year of varsity in 2023 with the Cumberland Panthers, Dorsainvil moved to Miami to pursue his football career. Friends say he was back visiting when he was killed.

"We will be missing you Big Q … Rest easy and know your football family will be with you forever," reads an Instagram tribute from the Panthers.

"It's a huge loss," said Adam Gilmour, who coached Dorsainvil in 2023 with the Knights. "Kids lost a friend, coaches lost, you know, a great player. The community as a whole lost a wonderful person."

Gilmour described Dorsainvil as always kind, respectful and easy to coach.

"It's an absolute tragedy that he is not no longer with us," Gilmour said. "He's going to be missed."

He said the young football star would always laugh at his jokes — even if they weren't funny.

"His hands were massive and I'd always joke with him. I would put my tiny little hands up to his which would be at least twice the size of my hands, and that was when he was 15," Gilmour said.

The Kanata Knights plan to take donations for Dorsainvil's family at their game this Friday.