The mother of one of two men fatally shot outside a Chinatown restaurant over the weekend says she is at a loss to understand why her son is dead.
“There is no way to make sense of this at all,” Brenda MacIntyre said Monday afternoon at the scene.
“I don’t understand how any of this can ever happen to anyone – but with my son in particular, I mean, he’s at like the height of his happiness ever right now.”
MacIntrye’s son, 29-year-old Quinn Taylor, was one of two men killed after shots rang out early Sunday morning.
It happened near the New Ho King restaurant, in the Spadina Avenue and Nassau Street area, at around 3:15 a.m.
According to police, a group of men were involved in an altercation in the area when one suspect opened fire, killing two people and wounding three others.
The second victim has been identified by family members as David Michael Eminess, 26, a husband and father to a two-year-old daughter.
A suspect description has not yet been provided by police. A motive behind the shooting has also not been supplied by investigators.
Speaking with CP24, MacIntyre described the makeshift memorial that has since appeared on Spadina Avenue in honour of her son and the other victims as ‘amazing.’
“It means a lot – it’s one of the reasons I came down actually,” she said.
She described her son as an avid music lover and a devoted father to his young daughter.
“If he’s not working, he’s spending time with his girlfriend, spending time with his daughter, over at our house, making music.”
Kaillin MacIntyre, Taylor’s sister, said that while the two weren’t extremely close, he was always there for her.
“He would have those moments when he told me how much he cared, and how much I could just tell him anything if I wanted to.”
As of Monday afternoon, there had been 31 shootings resulting in injury or death in Toronto in 2016.
Taylor’s mother described the recent rash of gun-related violence in the city as crazy.
“It’s happening all the time in Toronto,” she said of the shootings.
“I would never expect that I would be standing here talking to you about this. It just doesn’t make sense.”
Police continue to investigate.
