Family mourns 15-year-old teen Tyson Bailey fatally shot in Regent Park as police detail new evidence

 “Tyson was a good kid,” says mother Christina Scott.
 

Christina Scott was with her 15-year-old son inside their Regent Park apartment just minutes before he was murdered.

On Jan. 18, Tyson Bailey asked to stay home from school, complaining he wasn’t feeling well after playing basketball — one of many sports he excelled at while attending Central Technical School on the other side of the city.

“The child was home with me,” said Scott, sitting on an inflatable mattress in the living room. A poster of handwritten condolences set around a pink heart was propped up in a corner near the TV.

“He was lying right on this same here bed with me.”

That day, Bailey left his lowrise brick building on the north side of Dundas St. around 1:55 p.m., crossing the road to meet a friend and play video games — the teen’s favourite pastime, his mother said.
Exterior surveillance footage shows Bailey walking into a nearby highrise at 605 Whiteside Pl. with a friend (police at one point described two persons of interest in the case, based on the video).

Just before 2 p.m., the boys entered one of the building’s two elevators, which they took to the top floor — level 13.

Bailey’s friend, who lives with his mother and siblings in an apartment on the 13th floor, just steps from the door to the east stairwell, went inside while Bailey waited in the hallway, said Det.-Sgt. Justin VanderHeyden, lead homicide investigator for the case.

Much of the last minutes of Bailey’s life have become clearer after police questioned the friend, who was last to see him alive.

When visited by the Star, that boy’s mother said he was too traumatized to relay what happened next.

“Something caused Tyson to open that door and enter the stairwell,” VanderHeyden said.

Just after 2 p.m., Bailey was shot between two and four times in rapid succession just inside the doorway of the stairwell — its walls painted a faint yellow now smudged with black fingerprint dust as light streams down from a small rectangular window on the spot the teen was killed.

VanderHeyden said Bailey was facing his attacker. In moments, Bailey’s friend would be the first to reach him, slumped over on the cold concrete landing.

“His friend actually heard the shots, ran back to the door and heard Tyson calling for help from the other side,” VanderHeyden said. The first call to 911 came from the friend’s apartment.

When paramedics arrived, they were forced to scale 12 flights of stairs to reach the teen when both elevators that fire crews put on service became stuck on two separate floors.

Toronto Community Housing issued a statement Friday reiterating both elevators were in working order that day.

“Our building staff and a service technician called in by Toronto Community Housing found no mechanical issues with the elevators,” wrote president and CEO Gene Jones. “Both elevators were quickly reset to regular service by the technician.”

Bailey would die in hospital shortly after, suffering from a fatal wound to the chest.

As frantic messages identifying the victim circulated on Twitter amongst a tight-knit group of young friends, Scott was called to St. Michael’s Hospital to identify her boy.

“I tell them, that’s my son,” Scott said. “My child was a very great, great, great child.”

Now the mother sits on the same bed she watched him leave from, grasping tightly at her arms as she folds them over her chest.

She’s one of many who can see no reason why Bailey, who has lived in Regent Park since he was 2 years old, was killed that day.

He was known as a star athlete — No. 7 — with a promising future in football, studious with a wide, toothy smile always plastered on his face.

“The child go to school, he come back home,” Scott said. “I don’t know why they kill him or what they kill him for.”

VanderHeyden said Bailey had no criminal record and there is no “obvious connection” to any criminality. Everyone the Star spoke with, including police, insisted he had no gang affiliations.

The question remains whether the teen — who neighbours, friends, school officials and his family believe had a bright future ahead outside of the Park — simply walked in on something that, in a flash, cost him his life.

A growing memorial surrounding a tree between Bailey’s home and the building where he was killed included a black football helmet and a basketball covered in snow on Sunday. But it won’t bring peace for Scott or the middle child’s five siblings.

“They’re not taking it easy, but we have to cope with it,” Scott said.

Friends started to gather at the home after 1 p.m. as pancakes cooked on the stove, occupying couches beside bouquets of cellophane-wrapped flowers dropped off by well-wishers.

Those who knew Bailey will again gather for viewing and memorial services this week as police search for his killer.

“Tyson was a good kid,” Scott said. “Tyson will remain a good kid wherever he go.”