Alex Wettlaufer was trying to get out — so he worked hard in school and aspired to go into the military, all because he hoped to one day leave the North York community housing complex where he grew up.

But just a few minutes’ walk from home late Sunday night, the 21-year-old was shot dead by Toronto police in the ravine within Villaways Park, following a report of a man with a gun near Leslie subway station.

It is a similar fate as that of Sammy Yatim, a teen also shot and killed by Toronto police in 2013, and someone Wettlaufer counted as a classmate and a friend, according to neighbours.

“He was quiet, kept to himself … (he wanted) to get out of here, to get out of housing,” said family friend Diane Storms, who has known Alex’s mother for years. “When you are trying to improve yourself, it doesn’t help when you have this stigma.”

The incident began just after 11:15 p.m. Sunday, when officers arrived at the Leslie subway station at Leslie St. and Sheppard Ave. E. to investigate reports of a fight between two men. Toronto police tweeted late Sunday that one of them had a gun.

Investigators say one of the men fled to the nearby park, where there was a confrontation with Toronto police, including members of the Emergency Task Force, that resulted in police fatally shooting Wettlaufer. At 11:34 p.m., paramedics were called to the scene. They transported the man to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, where he was pronounced dead.

Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU), which probes incidents of death, serious injury and allegations of sexual assault involving police, was called in early Monday morning to investigate. SIU spokeswoman Jasbir Dhillon said the probe is still in the early stages, and investigators cannot yet say if Wettlaufer was carrying a gun.

“It’s part of the investigation, whether or not he was carrying a weapon,” she said.

Throughout the day Monday, Toronto police cruisers cordoned off the wooded area near the Don River trail around a short pedestrian bridge through the densely forested area.

According to Storms, who spoke with one of Wettlaufer’s siblings shortly after the shooting, Wettlaufer was on his way back home from visiting his girlfriend at the time of the incident and was on the phone with his mother when police approached.

“Can you imagine, talking to your child on the phone, then hearing gunshots? And then silence?” she said.

Neighbours in the community housing complex where Wettlaufer grew up describe him as a serious young man from a large family, the second youngest of 10 kids. He aspired to follow in the footsteps of his late father, known as Shorty, and go into the military — though unlike his dad, Wettlaufer was over 6 feet tall.

Wettlaufer attended the same North York high school as Yatim and was friends with him, according to neighbours.

Lilieth Rankine, a neighbour who has lived in the housing complex just north of Sheppard on Leslie for more than two decades, said she has known the young man’s family for years. Rankine said all of the siblings in the family are in shock.

“He’s a good kid, went to school, finished school,” she said. “I don’t get it . . . What happened? Can you imagine what the community is going through?”

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With files from Peter Goffin and Ramisha Farooq