The mother of the 14-year-old boy gunned down in Surrey on Monday night said her son was “amazing.”
“No, he didn’t deserve to die,” Tequel Willis’s mother Tiffany told Global News.
“My son’s epically amazing, he’s an amazing young man. He’s loving, caring, he always cared about people. Friends, everyone.”
Tequel took a taxi at 7:30 p.m. Monday to Surrey’s Guilford neighbourhood, where he was shot and killed.
His family said he was dropping off some keys.
The taxi driver was not harmed and a dark sedan was seen leaving the area following the shooting.
“It was a setup,” Tiffany said.
Tequel’s sister Porsca told Global News her brother was told to go to the location where he got shot.
“He told us he would be back before curfew and he never came back,” she said. “All of us were calling his phone. The last thing he said to me, when he was in the cab going there, he said to me, ‘I’m coming home soon.’ And he never came back.”
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said they believe it was a targeted shooting and Tequel was known to them.
About 30 minutes after the shooting, Langley fire crews responded to reports of a burning vehicle in the 21400 block of 76th Avenue.
IHIT investigators confirmed they are working to determine if there is a link between Monday’s fatal shooting and the burned vehicle.
“Why not take me?” Tiffany said.
“You took him. Take me. He had a whole life ahead of him. They took him too soon.
“How could you take someone’s life so young so soon and think that it’s OK? It’s not right.”
The investigation into what happened continues.