Hundreds of people gathered in an underground skatepark on Wednesday to pay tribute to the young Vancouver artist and skateboarder who was shot to death outside a downtown nightclub last weekend.

Twenty-three-year-old artist Lee Matasi was remembered by his mother, Susan Jessop, as having the soul of an artist and the heart of a lion.

Susan Jessop reads her farewell to her 'beautiful boy'
Susan Jessop reads her farewell to her 'beautiful boy'

"A mother is not supposed to write words of farewell to her beautiful boy who only made it into manhood for a few short years," Jessop told the grieving crowd.

"Lee, do you see the soothing streaks of celestial blue? Those are you mother's, your father's, your sister's, and your family's loving arms embracing you and rocking you to sleep into a gentle slumber into the long eternal night."

Friend Matt Smed remembers Matasi building ramps and painting walls – transforming a gated-off tunnel under East Hastings Street into a unique gathering place for skateboarders.

Friends gather in Leeside Tunnel for memorial for Lee Matasi
Friends gather in Leeside Tunnel for memorial for Lee Matasi

"He came in here and made it into something, made it into a place. You know the art's up on the walls. It's an art gallery," he said.

"Lee skated on walls like he painted on them. It was enough to see him skate to know that he had pleasure in creating."

Smed says the city agreed to to pay half the cost of turning the hangout into a legal concrete skatepark just weeks before Matasi's death.




And he's hoping to raise $100,000 in private donations to make the Leeside memorial skatepark a reality

A 28-year-old Vancouver man, Dennis White, is charged with second-degree murder in Matasi's shooting.