Victim remembered for love of song
Family, neighbours remember couple killed in Weston shooting last week
If Akim Fleming wasn’t cleaning at work, he was cleaning at home, dancing and singing from one corner of the room to the next while music blared.
Fleming, 33, worked as a housekeeper, cleaning with his mother. Wherever they went, he’d play music. Sometimes, gospel melodies; other times, classic love songs.
“He was too funny,” his mom recalled, reminiscing how Fleming used to strut around her apartment in his robe, putting on impromptu musical performances, or using a blanket as a red carpet. “He would dress up, put on clothes, and sing Celine Dion with a wig.”
One of eight children, Fleming was killed on Feb. 27 alongside his boyfriend Rajiv Ralph, 31, in an early morning shooting that shook Toronto’s Weston neighbourhood and left many to wonder at yet another seemingly senseless act of gun violence.
Toronto police have not released a potential motive for the shooting nor said whether the victims and suspects knew one another.
Fleming and Ralph were dating and lived in an apartment building less than 500 metres away from where they were killed on Hickory Tree Road, just south of Weston Road and Lawrence Avenue West, a week ago Tuesday.
The couple had lived together for a couple of years, said Fleming’s mom, who asked not to be named due to fears about her safety, knowing her son’s killers have not been found.
In an interview with the Star, she stood in her apartment, at times pacing between the kitchen and front entrance, flanked by her mixed-breed dog, King. Her husband, Fleming’s stepfather, sat in the dining room, chiming in and out of the conversation.
The two of them are trying to make sense of what happened — what was Akim doing out around 4:40 a.m., and why would anyone want him dead?
Fleming’s mother said she couldn’t imagine her son doing anything to put a target on his back, partly because of his natural tendency to run away from confrontation — “He would never take a bullet for me and you,” she quipped.
“He wouldn’t challenge anybody with anything,” his stepdad said.
His mother wants justice for her son. “I find this killing; I don’t know how to put it. It’s very fishy. It looked like a set-up. I don’t know.”
Her husband added, from the other room: “To me, when you (take) so many bullets, there are all kinds of messages coming with it.”
Residents in one apartment building on Hickory Tree Road described being wakened early Tuesday by sounds of gunfire — some initially thought the noise was fireworks — and stepped onto their balconies to discover one man lying near the parking garage and the other on a patch of grass beside the curb.
Jalisa Colley could hear one of them screaming. She said she and her daughter watched in horror as emergency crews worked to keep the two men alive. “My nine-yearold watched somebody die this morning and was woken up out of her bed by this violence. It just has to stop.”
According to police, both men were rushed to the hospital, where they died from their injuries.
Many witnesses expressed frustration and sadness over what they believe was a lack of urgency in the response — noting it took at least 10 minutes before the first ambulance arrived.
“There was no panic,” Colley said. “Paramedics should’ve come faster,” said another woman.
Police have not confirmed witness accounts, nor have they said how many suspects they believe were involved in the shooting, nor whether the shooting was targeted.
As of Monday, no arrests had been made in the case.
Colley described seeing a black SUV flee the scene. Others who peered out from their balconies moments earlier said they watched two other vehicles drive away.
On Monday, a police spokesperson said the Homicide Unit continues to actively investigate this case, but offered no further information than what reporters heard late last week.
The two men had been together for a couple of years, but Fleming’s mother and stepfather said they didn’t know Ralph well beyond small talk; the Star has been unable to reach his family.
Court records obtained by the Star show both men were facing relatively minor criminal charges — but nothing that might suggest a motive for the shooting.
Fleming was charged for allegedly stealing a car and license plates in October 2022, while Ralph faced offences relating to an alleged assault — on Fleming — in June of last year.
The documents show Ralph also faced offences for breaching nocontact orders with Fleming and had a previous charge last August for allegedly possessing crystal meth for the purpose of drug trafficking. The charges had not been tested in court.
Fleming and Ralph are Toronto’s ninth and tenth victims of homicide this year.
The Star visited Fleming and Ralph’s apartment building days after the shooting. “I will miss you my friends” and “RIP” were written with a black marker on the front door. Somebody had fastened yellow and pink artificial flowers to the door handle.
The shock of Fleming’s death has sparked tributes on social media, where friends and loved ones have described him as a respectful, kind and honest man with a beautiful big smile.
His stepdad fondly remembers how Fleming welcomed him into their family with open arms. Fleming would call him “dad” without hesitation — save for the odd time. “When we got into an argument, he’d call me uncle,” he chuckled.