Hobe Sound man dies after being found shot at Mark Landing apartments

 HOBE SOUND — Tony Parks was a quiet man, "but if you knew him you loved him."
 
That's how Parks' sister, Kim Hardy-Starke, described her 28-year-old brother Friday morning — less than 12 hours after he died.

Martin County Sheriff's Office detectives are conducting a homicide investigation in connection with Parks' death.

"He was an outgoing person for you, he'll see you walking, he'll ask you do you need a ride," Hardy-Starke said. "If you need anything, you could be in the store and didn't have a dollar to finish paying for your stuff, he'll put the money up for you."

Deputies about 12:19 a.m. Friday went to an address on Southeast Randall Court in the Mark Landing apartments after a report of a shooting. Investigators found Parks with a single gunshot wound to the abdomen in the parking lot. He died after being taken to St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach.

Parks' listed address is in the 10100 block of Southeast Williams Drive, less than a mile from the Mark Landing apartments.

Parks was born and raised in Martin County and attended South Fork High School. He worked with his father, who has a tree service.

"He was the type of kid, he had to be loved because that's what he gave," said Solomon Harris, 69, a family friend. "I don't think you can find no one in the community ... can say nothing negative about him."

Hardy-Starke said Parks was quiet and didn't have many in his circle of friends.

"But if you knew him, you were in his circle, you loved him," she said.

Hardy-Starke said Parks had four sisters as well as nieces and nephews. She last spoke to her brother earlier in the week.

"He had a very large family, both sides," she said. "Mom's side and dad's side."

It wasn't immediately clear what Parks was doing at the Mark Landing apartments.

At the apartments Friday morning, a man who declined to give his name said he heard four or five shots.

"The gentleman come around the corner of the building, said he'd been shot, he come right here, started to come toward me," the man said. "I told him I had a firearm, told him not to come any closer, told him to lay down I'd call 911."

He said he called 911.