‘He didn’t deserve this,’ mom says
A senseless death is grieved after son was shot in an apparent act of road rage
Willis Hunt wasn’t even driving the night he died.
Vancouver’s 14th homicide of the year — an apparent victim of a deadly road rage incident early Friday morning — doesn’t even drive, said his mother Sunni Hunt.
Instead, Hunt was a passenger as a female friend sat behind the wheel of a grey Toyota Matrix. They were driving past the PNE in Vancouver when the driver accidentally cut off a white sedan.
She didn’t mean to, said Hunt, recounting what the friend had told her. But “that car just wouldn’t let up. The driver was enraged, it seemed.”
The driver turned on McGill Street, with the white sedan hot on their heels. At some point, “she stopped the car and got out to say ‘What’s the problem? I’m sorry.’ ”
Willis, 33, also got out of the car and put himself between the driver and the vehicle.
“The next thing she knew, he was against her ... he flew up against her,” said Hunt. “She didn’t know he was shot. She never heard (the gunshot).”
Vancouver Police Department received a call about the shooting near Bridgeway Street, which runs beneath the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge off-ramp, shortly after 1:30 a.m.
Police and paramedics responded minutes later, but were unable to save Willis. He died at the scene.
A 32-year-old woman who had been in the same vehicle as the victim was treated for minor injuries, said police. No arrests have been made.
News of Willis’s death has ricocheted from Vancouver to the B.C. central coast and northern B.C. where family and friends live.
Hunt learned of her son’s death Friday night when she was in Prince Rupert for a niece’s funeral. A friend phoned her and told her she heard Willis may have been shot.
“I said ‘No, no, no, not Willis, please not him,” said Hunt. “Then she called me again and said it was.”
Born and raised in East Vancouver, Willis was the youngest of three children and attended Britannia Secondary.
He worked in carpentry, played basketball and tennis with his nephews, and constantly told them to eat healthy food. He lived a block away from Hunt, and liked to come over to her place to cook. He ended every phone conversation, unfailingly, with “I love you, momma.”
“He was just so positive and kind and full of life,” said Hunt, who returned to Vancouver Saturday night. “He would put people before himself. He was just kind.”
Recently, the pair had talked about their future. Hunt, who is retired, dreamed of moving to Haida Gwaii, investing in a house in town and getting an RV camper. Willis was on board.
But instead of planning a future, Hunt is now planning a funeral and struggling to understand how her son lost his life over something as trivial as a driving dispute.
“He didn’t deserve this. Nobody deserves this,” she said. “This should never happen here in Canada. This violence and these guns — it should not be this way, and it’s getting so scary.”
In a statement after the incident, Vancouver Police spokesman Const. Jason Doucette said the investigation is “very active.”
“We are reminding anyone who may find themselves involved in a road rage incident to remain calm, not to engage the occupants of the other vehicle, and to call 911 if you feel your safety could be at risk,” he said.
Homicide detectives are asking drivers with dash cam video who may have been driving in the area of McGill and Renfrew Streets between 1:30 and 2 a.m. Friday to contact police at 604-717-2500 or anonymously at Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
He didn’t deserve this. Nobody deserves this. This should never happen here in Canada.”
Sunni Hunt