As police try to determine whether Marc Bontkes was the most recent innocent victim of targeted gun violence, the 33-year-old Langley developer’s family is preparing for his funeral.
A passerby found Bontkes, a husband and father of a four-year-old son, shot to death in the parking lot at Surrey’s Hi-Knoll Park around 6 a.m. on March 19.
Police say Bontkes was not known to be affiliated with gangs, and it’s unclear what he was doing in the park or why he was targeted.
A funeral has been planned for Wednesday in Langley, and in the meantime Bontkes’ friends and family are trying to make sense of his death on a memorial Facebook page erected in his memory.
“Oh Marc, today is the day I tell MJ his daddy, that loved him so much, is in heaven,” his wife, Chanel, wrote on the site. “Help me please, I need your strength babe.”
Friends described Bontkes — an avid baseball player with a tight-knit family — as kind and caring, with a personality that “lit up a room.”
Others wrote words of support for Bontkes’ young widow. “Hope you find strength to be strong for MJ,” a friend wrote. “Cannot imagine how difficult the days ahead of motherhood will be for you.”
Marc Bonkes’ funeral will be held at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday at Christian Life Assembly in Langley.
