Friends of 33-year-old club promoter Jordan Armstrong described him as hardworking, kind and caring the day after he was shot dead inside an Entertainment District nightclub around closing time on Sunday.
“I saw him as someone to look up to, and anyone who met him felt the same,” said family friend Paris Blackwood, 27, who recalled how the older Armstrong used to look after him as a kid in Markham, before he moved away to North York.
“I’m devastated,” he said, “I was meeting him again this week and now I won’t ever get to see him again.”
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Staff at the Orchid Nightclub on Peter St., near Spadina Ave., found Armstrong suffering from gunshot wounds inside the club around 3 a.m. Sunday, police said. He later died in hospital.
Armstrong’s social media accounts show he regularly promoted events the nightclub, including a Canada Day long weekend event that night.
“Jordan just worked so hard,” Blackwood said.
Kadeem (Bada Bada) Vanfield, who said he first met Armstrong in 2008 after he moved to Toronto from Jamaica, said the promoter was different because of his “outlook and hardworking attitude.”
“Jordan was always happy, always positive — that’s just the kind of guy he was,” he said. “I’ve seen many club promoters come and go, but he was different.”
On social media, several people responded to Armstrong’s death with condolences for his 11-year-old son and grandmother, whom he left behind.
A GoFundMe has also been launched by Armstrong’s friends in his name for “funeral costs and other family needs.”
Mayor John Tory issued a statement after Armstrong’s death, condemning the “unacceptable level of gun violence” for the second Canada Day weekend in a row.
“My heart goes out to the families, friends and communities who have been impacted by these senseless acts of violence,” Tory said.
Armstrong is Toronto’s 32nd homicide victim of 2019 and the 19th person to die in a shooting in the city this year.
Including him, 26 men and six women have been killed in Toronto in 2019.
Police are still looking for photographs and video footage taken inside the crowded club late Saturday and into the early hours Sunday.
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Anyone with information has been asked to contact 416-808-7400 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477.
Temur Durrani Temur Durrani is a former breaking news reporter in the Star's Radio Room and a contributor to iPolitics.
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