The two Jamaican men, Delroy ‘Uncle George’ Parkes and Seymour ‘Dappa’ Gibbs, who were killed in the June 2 shooting incident in a parking lot of the North Albion Collegiate Institute in northwest Toronto, Canada, have left a combined 17 children to mourn their loss.
According to the Toronto Police Service (TPS), Parkes, 61, who was originally from St Ann’s Bay in St Ann, before migrating to Canada in 1991, was killed while playing a game of dominoes. Four other people, including Gibbs, were shot and injured in the incident that took place about 10:53pm.
TPS said a group of men was gathered in the parking lot area after a football game when a dark pickup truck drove up.
Two suspects exited the vehicle and shot at the group of men before fleeing the area in the truck. Media reports indicate that more than 50 shots were fired at the group.
TPS said responding officers located five wounded victims when they arrived at the location, all of whom were transported to hospital where Parkes, of a Woodstock address, died while being treated. Gibbs died in hospital three days later on June 5.
Parkes was buried on Saturday at St Phillip’s Anglican Church Cemetery at Dixon Road, Toronto, following a funeral service at Oakridge Bible Chapel.
He has left behind 11 children, three of whom Loop News understands were born in Jamaica before he left for Canada. His children are Tashaun, Thornia, Wendel, Romaine, Damion, Ricardo, Halle, Jordan, Jaidyn, Justin, and Joshua.
Sophia Dunn, Gibbs’s mother-in-law, told the Canadian media that he had five boys and one girl. She said he was kind, liked to cook, and liked to make jokes.
Reports are that Gibbs had returned to Canada shortly after vising his last child in Jamaica, who is less than a year old.
Parkes was Dunn’s cousin and another of the victims is her uncle.
Dunn said she last spoke to Gibbs the night before he died.
“Instead of one funeral, we will have two funerals,” she said.
She added: “Nobody should die like that. He’s just gone too soon. The baby didn’t even touch one year old yet.”
