Costa Rican police are investigating the death of a beloved 59-year-old Toronto teacher who was fatally stabbed in the coastal tourist town of Puerto Viejo on Sunday after he rose early to take a photo of the sunrise.

A member of the regional police force in Limon confirmed the victim was Bruce McCallum, who has worked for the Toronto District School Board for roughly 20 years.

It's unclear for exactly how long he had been in Costa Rica. Colleagues say that it was the latest stop on his yearlong sabbatical that began with a trip to New Zealand and Australia to capture photos and to immerse himself in new cultures and experiences.

Costa Rican police are investigating the stabbing death in the coastal tourist town of Puerto Viejo. (Google)

He planned to do the same through South and Central America.

But video footage shows at least two teenagers confront McCallum just before dawn Sunday, said Rafael Arajna, speaking for the Costa Rican police agency Seguridad Publica on Wednesday.

"They kicked out at the camera and when he tried to fight back they took out a knife," Arajna said.

No arrests

Video of the attack shows just two young men, but Arajna said a third person may have been involved. The attackers stole McCallum's camera and left him lying in the road.

No one has yet been arrested in connection with the stabbing.

The area, which caters to tourists and has become a haven for ex-pats on the Caribbean Sea, doesn't see a lot of violence. Arajna said that roughly 100 officers from Limon and a neighbouring district have been dispatched to Puerto Viejo and the surrounding area.

McCallum had been on a leave of absence from teaching at Scarborough's Albert Campbell Collegiate Institute, where he worked for 18 years.

Teaching was his second career -- something that he often told students who were struggling, his colleague Caroline Crabtree said.

"Bruce was not an academic student in high school," she said. "And he liked to tell that story to kids to show them that we all have different paths to get to our goals."

'Caring and dedicated' teacher

The school plans to hold a memorial Thursday morning for the teacher — known as a someone who could teach math to kids who swore they couldn't understand it — said Toronto District School Board spokesperson Shari Schwartz-Maltz.

He was a caring and dedicated member of our teaching team [and] was a positive role model in the Campbell community who had a passion for photography and travel," school principal Carol Richards-Sauer wrote in a letter to students Wednesday. "His energy and work ethic were an inspiration to us all."

He was the kind of teacher who got to school early and stayed late. He ran a comics and anime club and supervised the archery team.

"He was a teacher that when the kids came and asked him to do something, no matter what his time constraints were like, he just said yes," Crabtree said.

Students are planning to hold a memorial for McCallum Thursday morning.

Michelle Zhao, a former student, said McCallum made math fun for his students, and he was well-liked because he took time to get to know everyone's interests.

Zhao, 22, has always been engaged in pop culture, and she connected with her former math teacher when he promised to show her some photos he had taken of celebrities at the Toronto International Film Festival.

"He loved photography and I'll always remember him for that moment," she said. "And he also always grew a mean 'stache during Movember."

McCallum had no children of his own, but he was gifted at making connections with students, Crabtree said. He taught applied mathematics to Grade 9 students and helped several to move on into the more advanced academic stream under his guidance.

'Teaching is a calling'

A math teacher herself, Crabtree teaches Grade 10 classes and says one of her most successful students bloomed thanks to McCallum's care this previous year.

"Teaching is a calling," she said. "And Bruce had that calling and that passion. He was a very kind soul, a very soft-spoken man who cared about people."

Global Affairs Canada told CBC Toronto that consular officials are working with Costa Rican authorities and providing assistance to McCallum's family.

The South Caribbean Chamber of Tourism and Commerce also plans to hold a memorial in Costa Rica for McCallum on Saturday morning and "take a photo of the sunrise" in his honour.