Last weekend, Jeffrey Parker, 35-year-old Canadian graphic designer (also known as Jay Parker and Jay Tripper) was found stabbed in his apartment in Toronto, Ontario. Police have since arrested 22-year-old suspect Tyler Reynolds and charged him with second-degree murder.
CTV News Toronto reports that Parker was rushed to St. Michael’s Hospital, but died of his injuries hours later. Reynolds was discovered later with minor injuries at the nearby Harvey’s restaurant and sent to a hospital. Police arrested him later.
Parker designed colorful and psychedelic images for local events and was reportedly an active part of the electronic music community.
A GoFundMe fundraiser to help Parker’s surviving partner Kevin move out of their home has raised $9,000 over its initial $3,500 goal.
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Reynolds will appear in court to face charges on December 13.
Related: 5 reasons to visit Toronto’s old-school gay village. You may never leave.
The murder has disturbed Toronto’s gay community, especially since the arrest of suspected serial killer Bruce McArthur earlier this year.
In February, police discovered the remains of six different men scattered in the lawn of one of McArthur’s landscaping clients. McArthur was eventually charged with eight counts of first-degree murder.
Organizers of Toronto’s Pride parade subsequently requested that local police not march in the local Pride event for ignoring the gay community’s previous reports of missing men. In a statement, the organizers of Toronto Pride joined the Toronto LGBTQ center and several HIV organizations to say:
What [the individual stories and lived experiences of these murdered men] share was that the investigations into their disappearances were insufficient, community knowledge and expertise was not accessed and despite the fact that many of us felt and voiced our concerns, we were dismissed. This has severely shaken our community’s already often tenuous trust in the city’s law enforcement. We feel more vulnerable than ever.
Relationships between Toronto’s gay community and the police have long been strained because of a string of unsolved murders in the city’s gay village during the 1970s and Operation Soap, a 1981 police raid on the city’s gay bathhouses.
In the raids, police arrested 300 men for “gross indecency” (a law forbidding group sex) and charged 20 bathhouse employees for “keeping a common bawdy house.” Most of the charges were later dropped.
The raid marked a turning point in the formation of Toronto’s LGBTQ community, similar to the 1969 Stonewall uprising in the US. But the sore feelings between Toronto’s police and its gay community are still slowly healing.
Kangol
This is sad news, but I’m glad they caught the murderer. I was wondering what had happened with that white gay bear serial killer Bruce McArthur, who killed all those gay men of color, including some immigrants, in and around Toronto? When is his trial? Have the authorities found more bodies or are they even searching for more given that he buried several in planters around the city?
DarkZephyr
That’s who they’re talking about as the serial killer mentioned in the headline. He killed men from Islamic countries as well as white men. There seems to be a “publication ban” since last January (2018) limiting what can be reported in the media at this time, so it will probably be awhile before we know what is really going on with that.
gmale
They weren’t ‘some’ immigrants but All immigrants. the only time the police payed attention was whe Bruce the white gay man decided he had enough brown victims(south asian-sri lankan and middle eastern muslims) and preyed on his first white.
Sad state of affairs in Toronto.
HereIAm
Part of these victims’ downfall was their attraction to BDSM, a dangerous and dark practice. Most of them willingly got tied up and blindfolded by this white sadist. No they don’t deserve to die like that but it’s a cautionary tale that if you can’t stop yourself from playing with fire, you will get burned badly one day.
PinkoOfTheGange
The last article was a couple of weeks ago with his trial to start in January. There usually isn’t much to report between the arraignment and trail unless more evidence is found.
Did you read the Vanity Fair piece over the summer? If you haven’t, it isn’t behind a pay wall right now.
Copy and paste:
vanityfair.com/style/2018/07/toronto-serial-killer-bruce-mcarthur-accused-landscaper
MarathonBoy
So this 35-year old has a boyfriend, but this 22-year old guy was in his apartment. For some reason apparently not worth mentioning.
stanpaske
So, let’s diminish the crime, by blaming, planting or insinuating that the victim was responsible for his death on the basis of age and sexual orientation. Disgusting.
MarathonBoy
Not on the basis of age or sexual orientation. On the (probable) basis of having sexual trysts with near- or complete strangers. It’s a dangerous way to live, no matter how relentlessly it is promoted, marketed and celebrated by for-profit websites and apps.
LemonTea
He was an artist, the killer was helping him with a project. A truly amazing man was murdered and all you can wonder is whether he was sleeping around with strangers? Pathetic.
Geeker
It’s truly sad but why was this guy in his apartment?
prarie pup
Delivering pizza maybe? WHO CARES WHY THE GUY WAS IN HIS APARTMENT? What has that got to do with anything? You are insinuating the guy “had it coming” for having someone in his home.
MarathonBoy
@prairie pup – The real question is why you are so keen on not knowing why he was in the apartment. Why don’t you want to know all the facts surrounding this crime?
Sanjo
@MarathonBoy
??
PinkoOfTheGange
just another of the many socks of our resident church lady.
Juanjo
MarathonBoy – an old troll with a new name peddling the same “blame the victim” drivel. I do not care if the killer was there for a sexual tryst, to deliver a pizza, to check the water heater, or for any other reason. People should not go around killing other people.
nitejonboy
For all you know they could have had an open relationship, it happens…it doesn’t matter, what matters is you don’t kill someone!!