Packed funeral grieves slain 15-year-old teen Tyson Bailey

Tyson Bailey, 15, was remembered for his leadership, smile and bright future amid anger his young life was cut short. He was fatally shot in a Regent Park highrise on Jan. 18.

 

Tyson Bailey's sister Francelyn Clement leans over to kiss the forehead of her dead brother at his funeral Thursday at the Toronto Central Seventh Day Adventist Church.

As the sun shone through snow-covered skylights, a chorus of pained wails built to a cacophony of cries and shouts — the sounds of mourning.

Under the A-frame roof of the Toronto Central Seventh Day Adventist Church near Lawrence Ave. W. and Dufferin St., some 500 family members, friends and classmates gathered Thursday to grieve the loss of Tyson Bailey, who was fatally shot Jan. 18 in the stairwell of a Regent Park highrise where he had gone to play video games.

For one pastor, who said he was tired of funerals, anger remains.

“We would rather have been at his graduation, at his wedding,” said Pastor Andrew King, his cutting voice rising from the pulpit. “How many more exceptional men must we lay to rest before we change these things?

“This was not God’s plan for Tyson,” King said, calling on those responsible “to come forward and lay that to rest.”

Bailey was 15. The aspiring athlete was remembered first as a beautiful, seven-pound baby boy who was passed around at church more often than the collection plate, and as a leader who always made the right choices — homework before parties.

As one friend, whose words spoke for many young people present, wrote in a eulogy: “Of all of us, that was the one that was going to succeed.”

Bailey’s family — brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, mother and father — wore identical black Adidas tracksuits with white stripes, matching the one he would be buried in, as they held each other close around the open casket for a final farewell.

His sisters, Francelyn Clement and Shandel Bailey, and mother, Christina Scott, lay weeping over Bailey’s figure, touching his braided head with hands and lips, before the casket was closed.

Grandmother Merle Henry was overcome before the service got underway, falling to the ground before being helped to her feet and retreating to a back row.

The message shared by youth workers and family was a mix of love and anguish.

“All of us had high hopes for Tyson,” said Rob Perry, the Salvation Army’s Regent Park youth minister. “All of us had some responsibility for Tyson.

“And it hurts today because we failed . . . I failed.”

Norm Davis, Bailey’s football coach at Central Technical School, fought back tears.

“This is a difficult day,” he said. “Tyson Bailey, I didn’t know how much you were in my heart.”

With Bailey’s killer yet to be found, many questions lingered.

“God has a better plan for you,” said his aunt, Veronica Samuel. “But I’m still asking, why?”

Soon, hymns overtook the wailing before a long procession followed the casket out of the church to lay the young man to rest:

Farther along we’ll know more about it,

Farther along we’ll understand why;

Cheer up, my brother, live in the sunshine,

We’ll understand it all by and by.