Police say they believe all seven surviving people shot across Toronto on Sunday in four separate incidents spanning six hours will likely recover from their injuries.
Victims injured on Sunday included a group of people attending an unsanctioned car rally in a Scarborough parking lot, a person in an apartment building, and teenage residents of a townhouse complex standing near an adjacent playground.
Toronto police Supt. Steve Watts says two teenage boys aged 15 and 17, along with four other men and one woman struck by gunfire on Sunday are all still recovering in hospital, with injuries considered serious but non-life-threatening.
Watts said detectives are “working to determine any linkages” between the incidents, but information is scant as they “are only less than one day removed” from the shootings taking place.
“These were different events in different locations,” Watts told reporters outside Toronto Police Headquarters on Monday. “I don’t feel that the general public is in any significant danger related to these events.”
One other man who was shot near 31 Lotherton Pathway off Caledonia Road south of Lawrence Avenue West at 4:24 p.m. succumbed to his wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene.
No suspects have been arrested in any of the incidents so far, and officers have released a vague suspect vehicle description in only one of them.
CP24 has learned that the shooting at an unsanctioned car rally on McCowan Road was originally planned in Pickering, but Durham Regional Police blocked access to the Pickering location and drivers instead went to Scarborough.
Asked why Toronto police did not block access to the site on McCowan Road, Watts said little.
“My understanding is we were notified later in the afternoon that the event was moving west and that’s all I will say to that.”
Toronto Mayor John Tory said a rash of shooting incidents on Sunday where eight people suffered gunshot wounds in the span of eight hours, including one confirmed homicide across the city was “extremely disturbing.”
“Any gun violence in our city is unacceptable and the fact there were several shootings in our city this weekend including one where two young boys were victims is extremely disturbing,” Tory said in a statement sent to CP24 early on Monday morning. “I have spoken to Chief Ramer and I know police are working to solve each case and ensure those who engage in gun violence in our city are brought to justice.”
Tory said he supports police efforts as well as federal initiatives to freeze the sale of handguns and ban private ownership of most semi-automatic firearms.
“I will continue to support police - including our guns and gangs task force - doing all they can to stop gun violence along with a further crackdown on the flow of illegal guns into Canada and the approval of the Government of Canada gun reforms underway,” Tory said. “I will also continue to support the investments our city has made and that all governments should be making in kids and families by providing programs that work to address the roots of gun violence.”
He urged anyone who witnessed any of the incidents to contact police or Crime Stoppers.
Watts said that his officers have clear evidence that most guns used in shootings in Toronto originated in the United States and were smuggled across the border.
“The issue with firearm violence in Toronto specifically are imported crime guns from USA.”
He said a buyback similar to the one held in 2019 would do little to take those guns off the street.
“A buyback program is counter intuitive to American guns. No one is going to submit an American crime gun for a buyback program, you’re using that gun for your own illicit purposes.”
