By Amy Judd / Shelby Thom / Global News

Friends identify Kamloops homicide victim as Penticton man

Jan 24, 2019 | 10:18 AM

KAMLOOPS — Friends have identified one of the two shooting victims in Kamloops yesterday as 42-year-old Rex Gill of Penticton.

Gill leaves behind two children.

“The unthinkable happened today. I lost my first love and the father of my children,” his ex-wife wrote on Facebook.

“We may have not worked out in a relationship but we always stayed friends and supported each other. Thank you for my beautiful boys.”

She told Global Okanagan that Gill had recently moved to Kamloops for an employment opportunity.

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Gill is being remembered by friends as an outgoing, friendly and popular man.

He spent several years as the bus operator for Coyote Cruises, which is owned and operated by the Penticton Indian Band.

The business provides flotation devices and a shuttle bus service so tourists can float the Penticton River Channel, a popular summer tourist attraction.

“(Gill) and I started working at Coyote Cruises together back in 1993 and throughout that time, out of the last 25 years I think he’s worked about 19 of them,” said Gill’s best friend, Nicholas Kruger.

“Very outgoing. He had a very big personality,” he added.

“His bus was always known as the party bus and it was always the loudest, and he had the people cheering the most. He had a way to make people have fun no matter what.”

Kruger said he is still processing the shocking news. He said he doesn’t have any information on why Gill would be involved in a shooting.

“There’s just moments of sadness when I’m reading all the stories and seeing the pictures of him,” he said. “I can’t believe it still.”