Friends of an 18-year-old Brampton native shot and killed in London, Ont., after tracking down and trying to retrieve his lost cellphone Sunday are still trying to make sense of the “devastating tragedy.”

London police say Jeremy Cook left his cellphone in a taxi early Sunday but managed to track its location to parking lot in the city's north end. Cook and a relative approached a car with three men inside around 5:15 a.m., but the car began to drive away.

Cook grabbed the driver's side door.

Multiple shots were fired and Cook was struck a number of times, police said. Paramedics attempted to revive him but he was pronounced dead on scene.

Police have three suspects in custody.

Word of Cook’s death quickly spread through phone calls and social media.

“Jeremy never deserved this and it just doesn’t feel right,” Raeann Richard, 15, a friend of five years, told the Star.

“He knew how to make you laugh through any situation, very light-hearted… He’ll be missed a lot,” Richard said, describing him as a “very loving kid” who was a hard worker.

Cook’s wooden outdoor furniture-making company, Cottage Chairs, was featured on Brampton’s website for summer student businesses in 2014.

Ashley Yavtucovich, 16, had known Cook for around a year after meeting him through a friend and remembers him as someone fun to be around.

“He was honestly amazing, so smart, so funny, always positive… He had so much going for him,” Yavtucovich said, adding that Cook’s friends are especially upset over what led up to the shooting.

“Especially over such a stupid thing? A cellphone?”

Cook’s death is London’s fourth homicide of 2015.

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London police are asking anyone with information to contact the London Police Service at 519-661-5670 or CrimeStoppers at 1-888-222-TIPS (8477).

With files from The Canadian Press and London Community News

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