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Family of homicide victim Shaquille Wallace pleads for answers after their 'bright light' gone

Shaquille Wallace's mother was on vacation when she got the call.

Her 22-year-old son had been shot in Etobicoke, lying wounded in a laneway before being rushed to hospital.

But despite life-saving measures, moments later, he was dead. Now with their "bright light" gone, a dark cloud hangs over the family.

It's been nearly a week since police were called to Waterton Road in the area of Scarlett Road and Lawrence Avenue West after gunshots rang out there just after 8:15 p.m. Wallace was pronounced dead at the scene, becoming Toronto's second homicide victim of the year.

"Mommy, just enjoy yourself. Don't worry. I'm a big boy," Wallace's mother, Pearl Clarke, remembers her son telling her the last time they spoke. "I love you."

Now as the family yearns for answers, those words remain with her.

Nearly seven days after the shooting, police have no information on any suspects. That's left the family pleading for information from anyone who may have been in the area at the time.

"I'm just asking if anyone knows anything please come forward," said Wallace's sister Melissa Campbell.

Campbell remembers Wallace as a little brother with big dreams, loving and caring. She says he recently told her he wanted to go back to school. She says the 22-year-old was well-liked in the community and was on the quiet side.

"Shaquille is what kept us together and he encouraged me a lot," said Campbell, a mother to three children who she says adored their uncle.

"To have to tell my son, 'You'll never see your uncle again.' How do you explain it to a child? I don't know. I can't find the words," she said.

"For somebody to come in and just take him away from our family, like that ... there's no comforting words that anyone can say for the pain that I have."

Police are calling for anyone with information to contact homicide investigators at (416) 808-7400 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at (416) 222-TIPS (8477).

"He didn't deserve it. Nobody deserves it," said Clarke.

"I just want justice for my son."