WINTER GARDEN, Fla. – Tyrek Hill’s boss is remembering the 25-year-old after he was killed in a mass shooting in downtown Orlando last week.
“We expected him on Monday, [for it] to be a normal day, and it is far from that,” Garrett Paquette said.
Garrett Paquette owns Car Store Towing and tells News 6 he met Hill two years ago when the then 23-year-old eagerly arrived at his office ready to join the team.
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“Every time he would tow somebody’s car, they would always call in and say, ‘You know, that kid’s just great.’ ‘That kid’s just great’,” he said. “Tyrek was a very good part of our family, he really was.”
Hill planned to get his commercial driver’s license and continue moving up the ranks at Car Store Towing. Paquette said Hill was supposed to return to work on Monday and his absence is being felt, especially the loss of his “infectious smile.”
“Thursday was a normal day for him. I mean, who thinks for one minute that they’re going to be standing there with friends and within a moment’s notice you no longer are part of this world?” Paquette said. “He wasn’t down there looking for trouble. He was just a regular kid out there having a good time. That’s all he was.”
The family-owned business is now left with just their memories of Hill.
“Just a great kid. Absolutely great kid within our industry and within our family here at the car store,” Paquette explained.
As they mourn, the family wants the community to know that Hill was a gentle soul.
“Just [want him] to be remembered as a young man who was doing his best to make the world a better place, because that’s truly what Tyrek was doing. He was absolutely making the world a better place with everything he did,” Paquette said.
A GoFundMe to create a memorial for Hill is now online. To donate, click here.
A vigil in his honor will be held at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at McKinney Park in Clermont.
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