Road rage victim laid to rest
Friends and family bid farewell to ‘caring, compassionate’ man
A faint smell of sweetgrass lingered in the Glenhaven Memorial Chapel Monday morning when friends and family members of Willis Hunt arrived to say goodbye to the 33-year-old man, who was killed earlier this month in East Vancouver.
After the chapel pews had filled to their capacity of 250 people, mourners who had arrived a little late stood in the perimeter of the room.
And when the perimeter packed full, those who arrived even later spilled into the hall.
Willis lay in a hand-painted wood casket at the front of the room, an arm’s reach or two from his mother Sunni Hunt.
Flanking Willis’s casket were red and black painted drums and above it was a painting of a cross surrounded by wildlife — an eagle, a turtle, a whale and other animals — all recreated in a Northwest Coast Indigenous style.
Willis was shot dead in the early hours of Aug. 10 on a quiet back road just a few kilometres from the chapel.
Police have characterized his shooting as a traffic dispute turned deadly, but by Monday they had yet to publicly identify any suspects and there was no further information on the investigation.
A dozen pallbearers — young men close to Willis — stood in an alcove at the side of the room. They were dressed in black T-shirts that depicted in white a portrait of Willis and an image of Ken Lum’s iconic sculpture Monument to East Vancouver, a neon cross inscribed “East Van” that stands at the corner of Clark Drive and East 6th Avenue. “Big Brother,” the shirts read.
Robert Joseph, a hereditary chief of the Gwawaenuk First Nation, an ambassador for Reconciliation Canada and a member of the National Assembly of First Nations Elders Council, offered an opening prayer and spoke at Willis’s funeral.
Joseph said he had met with the pallbearers and others earlier, during a memorial service for Willis on Sunday.
“I heard so many inspiring things about what a young man who left us so early could still do in his lifetime to impact people, bring about change, share love, inspire others to pick up those who fall and be caring and compassionate beyond measure,” Joseph said.
“I was moved, really beyond words, to comprehend what a beautiful, powerful young man Willis was.”
An acoustic guitarist led mourners in renditions of the Christian hymns Amazing Grace and Precious Memories and worship songs How Great is Our God and What a Beautiful Name, before Kwakwaka’wakw and Haida singers performed songs of their own.
The pallbearers, some of whom had sung alongside their Kwakwaka’wakw and Haida relatives, then guided Willis’s coffin up the chapel aisle, out the building and into a waiting black hearse that was destined for a cemetery in Surrey.
Willis, who was born and raised in East Vancouver, was the city’s 14th homicide victim of the year.
Homicide detectives have asked drivers with dash cam video who had driven in the area of McGill and Renfrew streets between 1:30 and 2 a.m. Friday, Aug. 10, to contact police at 604-717-2500 or anonymously at Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.