Toronto police have released surveillance video capturing the fatal shooting of a 21-year-old man in Cabbagetown last week in the hopes of identify the suspect responsible for his death.
The video shows Nisan Nirmalendran being shot while in the entranceway to a seniors’ building located on Bleecker Street Thursday night shortly before 11:30 p.m.
Additionally, the footage shows a woman caught in the entranceway to the building as shots are fired shattering a window next to her, and being used as a human shield by Nirmalendran as he attempts to avoid the suspect’s gunfire.
The woman was knocked to the ground in the altercation.
In a release issued Monday afternoon, Toronto homicide Det.-Sgt. Terry Browne said that the video was released due to “the violent nature of the incident and violent disregard to the bystander’s safety.”
“It would be traumatizing for anyone,” Browne said of the woman’s experience during the shooting. "She was very, very lucky that she escaped injury.”
The gunman is described by police as a black male wearing a charcoal-grey jacket with a hood, with a white shirt or some sort of other article of clothing that protrudes from the back of his pants.
Police are also looking to identify a person of interest who accompanied Nirmalendran into the building earlier Thursday evening.
“We don’t know who he is, we don’t know what role, if any, he played in this shooting,” Browne said. “We believe he is a friend of the deceased.”
He is described by police as a black male wearing a dark and light-grey jacket, and a white striped article of clothing thought to be a scarf.
Investigators are also looking for two vehicles - a minivan and a car - that were spotted leaving the scene.
One is a Dodge or Town & Country minivan that is silver and possibly between the 2004 and 2008 model years, police said.
The second vehicle is an Acura TL with shiny rims and tinted windows. The car is a “lower, sporty version” that may be dark navy blue or black in colour, and is from the 2007 to 2011 model years, Det.-Sgt. Terry Browne said at a news conference last Friday.
Anyone with information about the slaying is asked to call police at 416-808-7400 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477).
Nirmalendran’s 22-year-old brother Nixon was one of two men who were killed in a shooting at Eaton Centre last June.
Police said last week there is no evidence linking the brothers’ deaths, but they have not ruled out the possibility that there may be a connection.
