TORONTO -- More than 100 people gathered at a funeral home on Wednesday to remember a 22-year-old student fatally shot in a North York community housing complex one week earlier.
Emergency crews were called to an address on Field Sparroway, located in the area of Leslie Street and Finch Avenue East, for reports of shots fired shortly after 8 p.m. on December 11. Jeremy Vincent Urbina was found multiple gunshot wounds and pronounced dead shortly after.
His family told CTV News Toronto he had been studying for a school exam earlier in the evening, and decided to go to the supermarket across the street to get some food for himself and his mother.
When Urbina didn't return home after more than 45 minutes, his mother, who did not want to be identified, started calling and texting him.
"I got really, really nervous, and I had this dreaded feeling something happened," Urbina's mother told CTV News Toronto the day her son was killed. "I'm still in denial. I'm numb."
On Wednesday, family and friends gathered at the Highland Funeral Home to remember the second-year student at the Ontario of College of Art and Design University.
Guests were invited to write memories and messages on his casket before the service began.
His family described Urbina as the "baby," the youngest of three brothers, who loved arts, theatre and video games.
"It feels like a never-ending nightmare and it just circles every day in my head," Urbina's eldest brother, Jasper Urbina, told CTV News Toronto. "He was sweet, caring, loving, he just wanted everyone to be happy."
The family believes Urbina was an innocent victim in a neighbourhood-targeted shooting. Police have told CTV News Toronto that there have been five shootings in the Leslie Finch Community Housing development in the last 18 months.
"There's definitely no closure," said Urbina's sister-in-law, Tarah Hamilton. "Today we’re going to be sending Jeremy off, and that will be one part of it. But as the days, and the months, and even the years continue to go on, we’ll definitely want to know at least who did it."
Police are looking for two suspects who had their faces concealed and were last seen running westbound from the scene near Finch Avenue, west of Leslie Street.
Anyone with further information is asked to contact Toronto Police Homicide at 416-808-7400 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477).
