Two men are dead after a “targeted” shooting in front of a home in Vaughan on Wednesday afternoon.
York Regional Police media relations officer Const. Kevin Nebrija said officers got a call shortly after 5:30 p.m. for shots fired outside a residence on Kaiser Drive, near the area of Martin Grove and Langstaff Roads.
“When officers arrived, two adult males were located in front of the residence suffering from multiple gunshot wounds and were pronounced deceased shortly after,” Nebrija told reporters at the scene.
The victims have not been identified, but Nebrija confirmed that one man lived in the residence where the shooting occurred, while the other was a resident of the neighbourhood.
“They are known to each other, but in the sense that they both resided in the same area,” the constable said.
Nebrija revealed that investigators later learned that three males were seen fleeing in a blue SUV immediately after the shooting.
Vehicle fire may be linked
He said that officers shortly received a call for a vehicle fire about 12 kilometres away in the area of Huntington and Kirby roads.
Police say they are looking into whether the vehicle is linked to the investigation.
When asked if the SUV may have been stolen, Nebrija said that it would be something investigators would determine.
“Again, that’s a whole scene that has to be processed by our forensic investigators to determine the identity of that vehicle and whether it was stolen or not,” Nebrija said.
Investigators do not have descriptions of the suspects yet, and the constable said they are working to identify them.
The circumstances that led to the shooting are not immediately known.
“This homicide is being considered a targeted incident, and there is no ongoing threat to public safety,” Nebrija said.
As to whether police have been called to the residence before, Nebrija said he did not have information at this time to suggest it had been targeted in the past.
He confirmed that there were other occupants inside the home at the time of the shooting, but no one else was injured.
“It’s absolutely shocking to the community here and to anyone who may have heard or seen anything. It’s not often that double homicides occur, especially in broad daylight,” Nebrija said.
“And while it is concerning for us, we do have our homicide investigators looking very much into it to find out who’s responsible and exactly why that happened today.”
Nebrija described it as a “chaotic and horrific event” and urged area residents impacted by the shooting to reach out.
“So, for those who did call it in we can only imagine what they’re feeling right now, what they’re going through,” he said. “We do have victim services in place if they wish to call them for any support.”
One area resident described hearing multiple consecutive gunshots.
“At first, you hear one gunshot, then it kinda like stops,” the resident, who was getting ready inside his home at the time of the shooting, told CP24.
“Then like two, three seconds later, you hear like four, five, six in a row kinda just out of nowhere.”
He remembered seeing dozens of police cruisers and ambulances arriving when he went out to check what was happening.
“I’ve never seen it before,” he said.
Police are asking anyone with information to contact them or Crime Stoppers anonymously.
