Toronto police say they believe a 25-year-old man killed during a violent assault outside a midtown restaurant was the victim of a street robbery.

According to investigators, at around 12:30 a.m. three men got into an altercation with the victim outside a restaurant at Yonge Street and Lola Road, located south of Eglinton Avenue.

The man, since identified as Zaher 'Zack' Noureddine, was rushed to a trauma centre with life-threatening injuries but was pronounced dead some time later.

Police previously described the incident as a "fight" but say they now believe the homicide is related to a robbery.

The exact cause of death is not yet known, however Toronto police Det. Jeff Allington told reporters on Wednesday evening that police are not aware of any weapons being used in the attack.

The victim was attacked just steps from the St. Louis Bar and Grill on Yonge Street and was in the company of an unknown number other people at the time, police say.

“I believe this was a very brazen robbery,” Allington said. “The area around here is well travelled and at 12 a.m. there would have still been a good crowd in the bar, which is right across the street.”

Allington said that he believes Noureddine was specifically targeted but he said he wasn’t likely “followed for blocks and blocks beforehand.”

As for the attack itself, the detective said that it doesn’t appear as though Noureddine attempted to fight off his attackers. Allington, however, said that the people he was with did engage in some sort of altercation with the suspects.

“I don’t believe that the victim put up any resistance at all,” he told reporters at the scene. “He may not have had the ability to fight back or he may have simply believed it was safer not to fight back.”

Suspect information is limited at this time but police say they are searching for three suspects who were reportedly wearing dark clothing and were last seen fleeing the area in a light-coloured sedan.

Police say those suspect may also be responsible for an assault and robbery near Bayview and Hillsdale avenues about 30 minutes later. The victim in that case sustained minor injuries.

As a result, police are asking businesses in the area of both incidents with surveillance cameras to contact them.

“We believe that they are linked. I am not going to get into why we think they are linked but we do believe there is a connection,” Allington said.

Noureddine has been described by friends as a salesman and a freelance journalist that wrote about hip hop music.

“He was quite the individual. He was very expressive, truthful, one of the best guys you could ever meet and hope to meet in your life,” one man, who identified himself as Scott, told CP24.

“We lost a really good friend.”