Grief counsellors at Central Tech after student murdered

Grief counsellors were dispatched to Central Technical School to help students and staff in shock after a student was murdered in Regent Park on Friday.

Tyson Bailey, 15, had stayed home from school that day. Police believe he was lured to an apartment on Whiteside Place, near Dundas and River streets, around 2 p.m. Bailey was shot four times in a stairwell.

There has been no word on a possible motive for the shooting.

A student who played football and basketball with Bailey said Monday, “He was an excellent teammate and a very nice guy.”

“I’m in shock. He didn’t deserve it. He was incredibly committed — he’d stay late for football and come early for basketball,” the teen said.

Bailey, the starting running back on the school’s junior football team, was remembered by his football coach for his leadership on the field.

“Our success…was really because of the leadership of Tyson Bailey and his work ethic,” said Norm Davis, who paused several times to compose himself as he spoke to reporters on Monday.

“He wasn’t selfish,” Davis said, describing how Bailey learned how to take a tackle without getting angry.

Board support staff as well as school social workers and board psychologists were at the school on Monday.

“We really can’t begin to tell you how shaken we are,” principal Sheryl Freeman said.

“Our condolences are with Tyson Bailey’s family. Tyson’s oldest sister graduated from Central Tech. She’s a remarkable young lady with a scholarship at Ryerson and is quite close with the staff.

“The Central Tech family is shaken to the core,” she said.

Freeman said Tyson was a role model to other students, she said, praising his ability to focus and stay on task during class.

Police said Sunday that Bailey had no criminal record and there is no evidence that he was involved in any high-risk behaviour.

“Tyson was not affiliated with any gangs at all,” Det. Sgt. Justin Vander Heyden said.

“By all accounts he was a fine young man.”

On Sunday, police executed a search warrant at a specific unit on the 13th floor of the Whiteside Place highrise.

Officers said they have spoken with the four people who occupy the apartment, including one male considered a person of interest. All of them are co-operating, police said.

Bailey’s death marks the city’s second murder of the year.

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