Mikhail ‘Wayne’ Thompson, a 36-year-old Jamaican-born Canadian dancehall promoter, will never see the face of his unborn child as he was brutally gunned down in the parking lot of a rented Airbnb apartment on Marley Road in St Andrew last Friday.
He had arrived just two days earlier to attend entertainment events of his fellow promoters and friends during the festive season. The gangland-style execution has shocked the entertainment communities in Jamaica and Canada, sparking a lot of reaction on social media.
“This is a big shock to us. Very tragic. Wayne was engaged, and his fiancée is nine months pregnant, it’s a really tough time for her,” close friend and fellow Toronto promoter Jason J Logixx said.
Police confirmed that Thompson had been killed in an Airbnb apartment on Friday. Video footage of the murder has been making the rounds on social media. In the footage, Thompson is seen conversing with a man after opening the security gate to allow the man access.
After a brief conversation, during which he appeared to give the man a hat, the man opened fire on him, shooting him several times. The man appeared to run off, but then turned back and crouched as he delivered a final coup de grâce to the wounded Thompson.
“There is a huge outpouring of grief here in Toronto because he interacted with a lot of people and it was a shock how he was just killed, it rocked the whole Toronto community,” Logixx said.
“He was a great promoter, a serial entrepreneur. He was known first as World Order, then World Great and then recently, it was Top Johncrow because of the clothing line with t-shirts and hats that he created,” he said.
Thompson was described as “non-confrontational” and “humble” by his peers in posts online. Logixx shared similar sentiments.
“He was really humble, very non-confrontational, and he just loved the dancehall culture, he was really enamoured with it. He knew a lot of people, and no one had anything bad to say about him,” Logixx said.
Thompson organised events such as Big Breeze and King of the Dancehall and reportedly executed between eight to 10 events in Toronto each year. He is survived by his son and a daughter, and the aforementioned unborn child.
