'Tyler was a survivor': Saskatoon homicide victim worked hard to leave gang lifestyle, friends say

Shooting victim Tyler Morin was working hard to leave behind the life of crime, drugs and gangs that had defined him, people who knew him say.

Morin has been identified by friends as the man who died earlier this week after being shot in the stomach on Nov. 4. 

He is the city's fifth homicide victim of the year.

Friend Jorgina Sunn says Morin was a survivor, someone who had left a gang with the help of Str8 Up, a local gang-intervention program in Saskatoon. 

"Ultimately, Tyler was a survivor," Sunn said. "He determined he was to make those changes. Even if he faced the day-to-day struggles, he always showed up, he always came back."

Str8 Up founder Father André Poilièvre said Morin had been a member of the program for about two years. A few weeks before he died, he did a presentation with other former gang members.

Poilièvre said Morin was a smart young man, who wanted more than the life of addiction and crime that had come to define so many people around him.

"He was a struggling young man who wanted to do well, who didn't want that lifestyle anymore and his whole family was involved in gangs, so he wanted to move on," he said. 

Poilièvre said many of Morin's close family members were themselves gang members, but Morin had dropped out and was working hard to turn things around. 

'Gang members are not bad people'

Sunn said leaving gangs and the lifestyle is harder than people think. But Morin was a very respectful person who tried very hard to escape. 

"His heart was always in the right place and that's how I choose to remember him," she said.  

Poilièvre recalled that during a stint in jail a few years ago, Morin asked for a book on calculus. 

"That's one indicator on what kind of guy he was. He liked to study, he liked to read," he said. "He looked forward to stuff. He wasn't just after gangs and garbage."

Poilièvre said "dropping colours" is never easy, especially for people whose lives are entrenched in gangs. He said Morin had left his former gang but was still fighting with his addiction, and was contemplating enrolling in a treatment program. 

He was shot and killed before that ever happened. Poilièvre said he hopes sharing Morin's story will help people better understand the struggles gang members and former gang members go through. 

"Gang members are not bad people. They do bad things, but they are just ordinary young men, young women whose lives have just been vicious and violent for them. They are born into that reality," Poilièvre said. 

"You have to admire the young man, not berate the young man."

Initially in 'stable condition' 

Around 6 a.m. CST on Nov. 4, police responded to a 911 call of a man being shot at a residence in the 200 block of Avenue V S. They found the victim with a small-calibre gunshot wound to his abdomen.

Police said he was transported to the hospital in stable condition, but earlier this week, confirmed that he had died on Nov. 11.

At the time of the shooting, police said they believed the victim knew the shooter but that a suspect had not been identified.

Neither Sunn or Poilièvre knew any of the details surrounding the shooting, but they did say that Morin lived in the area where he was shot.