Funeral Saturday for 9-year-old murder victim Kesean Williams

BRAMPTON, Ont. – A funeral was held Saturday morning for Kesean Williams, the nine-year-old boy who was shot to death in his Brampton home last week.
It took place at 10 a.m. at the People’s Church in Hamilton.
Family and friends also paid their respects at a visitation on Friday, at the Bay Gardens Funeral Home on Rymal Road East in Hamilton between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Last Sunday, family and friends gathered outside his house to remember Williams.
“This kid has not even started his life and it’s so wrong,” said a family friend.
Kesean was watching TV in his home when he was fatally shot in the head by a single bullet that was fired through a window. He was taken to hospital where he died.
Peel Regional Police said last week that they believe the home was targeted.
No arrests have been made.

Tears flow at funeral for slain 15-year-old Tyson Bailey

 
TORONTO - Four heartbroken siblings in matching black track suits clung to each other in a west-end church Thursday, tears streaming down their faces as they cried out for their murdered brother, Tyson Bailey.
And as the sobs of the 15-year-old boy’s family filled the Toronto Central Seventh-day Adventist Church, many of the approximately 500 mourners were dabbing their eyes with tissues even before the funeral began.
“I think we can all agree he was an exceptional young man,” Pastor Andrew King said during the emotional two-hour service.
He said the huge crowd on hand showed Bailey “touched many lives” during his life, which was cut short by a gunman in Regent Park two weeks ago.
“Why do bad things happen to good people? That’s the question we find ourselves asking,” King said.
By all accounts, Bailey was a respectful young man who was not involved in the gang lifestyle. But on Jan. 18 the teen’s life was snuffed out when he went to a friend’s place to play video games.
Bailey was shot to death in a 13th-floor stairwell of a highrise near Dundas and River Sts. His killer remains on the loose and the motive for his murder is still a mystery.
“I’m tired of funerals,” King said. “How many more exceptional young men must we lay to rest before we change our ways?”
Those who terrorize communities across the city must “cease and desist,” the pastor urged.
“Young people, it’s about time you turn your lives around,” he said.
Bailey’s high school principal, one of the many who spoke about the teen, said students and staff at Central Tech are struggling to reconcile his untimely death.
Bailey’s high school football coach, Norm Davis, said the running back was a hard worker on and off the field.
“We love you, we miss you,” Davis said, on behalf of the teen’s coaches and teammates.
Rob Perry, a youth minister in Regent Park who knew Bailey since he was “a chubby little kid,” delivered a eulogy written by the teen’s family.
“Tyson loved the game of football,” Perry said. “He played it hard and he played it well.”
But he also enjoyed playing dominoes and video games, he said.
The teen, who had “a charming personality and an infectious smile,” was named after Mike Tyson because his dad was a boxing fan, Perry said.
“Your family misses you dearly,” he said.
The grieving family also expressed gratitude in their eulogy to those who have been helping them through their difficult time.
And they thanked the paramedics who carried the mortally wounded boy down 13 flights of stairs because of problems with the elevators at 605 Whiteside Pl.
Toronto Police continue to appeal for witnesses to come forward and help them catch the teen’s killer.
Anyone with information should call the homicide unit at 416-808-7400 or Crime Stoppers at 416-222-TIPS (8477).

Saying goodbye to Tyson Bailey

Star photographer Dave Cooper was given special permission from the family to attend the funeral of the aspiring athlete who 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. Tyson was shot in a Regent Park stairwell earlier this month.

  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

Family, friends mourn 15-year-old Tyson Bailey

 
 

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.”

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.