Purple Nike sneakers and a Toronto Raptors baseball cap hang from a white cross along Highway 207 near the community of Lorette, Man.
Flowers rest underneath the cross that reads ‘Colin Roer’.
He is a victim of a suspected drunk driving crash early Sunday morning.
"He was respected by friends, coworkers and loved by all who came into contact with him," Martin Roer said of his 17-year-old son. "I'm in shock."
Steinbach RCMP said Roer was thrown from a car after it rolled and landed in the ditch on Highway 207, just east of provincial road 31 at 4:30 a.m. Sunday.
READ MORE: 17-year-old dead after single-vehicle rollover
According to police, Roer was the passenger and was not wearing a seatbelt. They said his 17-year-old friend was driving the vehicle.
"The driver had been drinking and through tests that we conducted we determined alcohol was in fact involved," said S/Sgt Harold Laninga with RCMP.
On Monday the flag outside Collège Lorette Collegiate, the high school where the two boys were students, was at half-mast. Roer’s father Martin said he was at the school this morning gathering his son’s belongings from his locker.
Next door, at the Co-op gas station where Roer was employed for more than a year, workers fought to hold back tears.
"This just rocks your world,” said Michelle Sauve, manager at the Co-op. "It's shocking that this could occur. That these choices have been made...I've talked to his dad. Colin was safe and always put his seatbelt on, his dad said.”
The 17-year-old male driver, also from Lorette, was taken to local hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
The investigation into the crash is ongoing.
