TORONTO

A young man shot dead on the doorsteps of a Rexdale community centre “didn’t deserve to die that way,” said one shocked friend.

Terry McLeod, 26, knew Toronto’s 53rd homicide victim — 25-year-old Neeko Mitchell — since their elementary school days.

“He was just funny and genuine,” McLeod said Monday. “There wasn’t a mean bone in his body. I don’t think anybody could’ve really said anything bad about Neeko.”

Mitchell was shot multiple times outside the front doors of North Kipling Community Centre, near Kipling and Finch Aves., while an indoor basketball tournament took place on Sunday.

Police found him on the ground shortly after 8 p.m. He was rushed to Etobicoke General Hospital, where he later died.

Dane Anthony Shaw, 34, was playing on the court when he heard gunshots.

“At least six shots rung out,” he said. “I came out of the gym and I looked outside and these guys were running around, and there was a guy laying on the ground.”

The community centre had around 80 people inside and out at the time, Shaw said. All of them scattered after the shooting.

He added he believes it’s “gang-related.”

Toronto Police spokesman Const. Wendy Drummond said investigators “don’t know at this point” if that’s the case.

“There were a number of people there so we’re hoping to speak with a lot more people than we have so far that can help us out,” Drummond said.

McLeod said Mitchell “wasn’t like somebody who racked up enemies or anything like that.”

“I didn’t see that side of Neeko, if he had that side,” she said.

People who knew him are “crying and teary eyed,” she added. “Everybody liked him.”

Colleagues at his former workplace — a west-end telemarketing company — said Mitchell worked in sales for three years before leaving about a year and a half ago.

One woman declined to be identified but said she believed Mitchell, who she described as “young” and “energetic,” had an infant daughter.

Homicide detectives are looking to speak with a large number of people who were at the community centre at the time of the shooting.

Anyone with information should call investigators at 416-808-7400 or anonymously through Crime Stoppers at 416-222-TIPS (8477).