SYDNEY, N.S. -- Emily Tuck, 17, is the youngest victim of a killing rampage that took the lives of 22 people and spanned 16 crime scenes in several different Nova Scotia communities over the weekend.

Emily was a Grade 12 student at Cobequid Educational Centre in Truro, N.S. She was also a student of fiddle teacher Shawn MacDonald.

“She was just very, very pleasant. There was just something about her that softened my heart and I wanted to teach her,” says MacDonald.

The teen’s teacher took to social media Monday to honour Emily with the first song they played together.

“I wanted the world to know that this kid had a future and I wanted the world to know this young lady had talent and now it’s extinguished,” says MacDonald.

Emily’s mother and father, Jolene Oliver and Aaron Tuck, were also among those killed.

MacDonald says they were a tightknit family that did everything together.

“Even though this fine family didn’t have much, they had each other,” says MacDonald.

“Aaron, her father, would come to lessons and sit down behind her as I was teaching and he was beaming with pride. He never missed a lesson.”

In his 30 years of teaching fiddle, MacDonald says he has never lost a student.

“When you have a tragic loss, whether it be Emily, Aaron, Jolene or someone who has lost their life to COVID, music will give us some solitude and comfort,” says MacDonald.