Police say they believe all seven survivors shot in Toronto on Sunday in four separate incidents spanning six hours are likely to recover from their injuries.
The victims on Sunday included a group of people attending an unauthorized car rally in a parking lot in Scarborough, a man in a residential building and teenagers living in a city complex near a nearby playground.
Toronto police Steve Watts says two teenage boys aged 15 and 17, along with four other men and a woman injured in Sunday’s shooting, are still recovering in hospital, with injuries considered serious but safe about life.
Watts said detectives “are working to establish any links” between the incidents, but information is scarce as they are “less than a day” from the shootings.
“These were different events in different places,” Watts told reporters at Toronto Police Headquarters on Monday. “I don’t think the general public is in any significant danger with these events.”
Another man, who was shot near 31 Lotherton Pathway on Caledonia Road south of Lawrence Avenue West at 4:24 p.m., died of his wounds and was pronounced dead on the spot.
No suspects have been arrested so far for any of the incidents, and officials have circulated a vague description of the suspect vehicle in only one of them.
CP24 has learned that the shooting during an unauthorized car rally on McCowan Road was originally planned in Pickering, but Durham regional police blocked access to Pickering’s place and the drivers went to Scarborough instead.
Asked why Toronto police were not blocking access to the McCowan Road site, Watts said little.
“As far as I understand, we were informed later in the afternoon that the event was heading west and that’s all I’m going to say about it.”
Toronto Mayor John Torrey said a number of Sunday’s shooting incidents in which eight people received gunshot wounds within eight hours, including one confirmed homicide in the city, were “extremely worrying”.
“Any gun violence in our city is unacceptable, and the fact that there were several shootings in our city this weekend, including one in which two young boys were killed, is extremely worrying,” Tori said in a statement to CP24 early this morning. Monday. “I have spoken to Chief Ramer and I know that the police are working to resolve each case and ensure that those involved in gun violence in our city are brought to justice.
Torrey said he supported police efforts, as well as federal initiatives to freeze gun sales and ban the private ownership of most semi-automatic firearms.
“I will continue to support the police – including our weapons and gang working group – by doing everything possible to stop gun violence, along with further suppressing the flow of illegal weapons to Canada and endorsing arms reforms by the government. Canada, which are underway, “said Tori. “I will also continue to support the investments that our city has made and that all governments should make in children and families by providing programs that work to tackle the root of gun violence.”
He called on anyone who witnessed any of the incidents to contact the police or Crime Stoppers.
Watts said his staff had clear evidence that most of the weapons used in the Toronto shootings originated in the United States and were smuggled across the border.
“The problem with gun violence in Toronto is specifically the import of criminal weapons from the United States.
He said the buyout, similar to the one in 2019, would do little to remove these weapons from the streets.
“The redemption program is contrary to the intuition of American weapons. No one will present an American crime gun for a buyout program, you use that gun for your own illegal purposes.
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