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National Post - Shootings leave Toronto bloody:
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National Post -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shootings leave Toronto bloody: Mayor blames lax U.S. gun laws after day of gunplay -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TORONTO - The city has exploded in gun violence, with seven separate shootings within 24 hours prompting the police chief to maintain the city is safe and the Mayor to insist something must be done. Despite Statistics Canada numbers released last week suggesting the city is among the safest in the country, the shootings started at 10 p.m. on Monday. Within two hours, six men collapsed from bullet wounds -- at least two of them with serious injuries. The gunplay bled into yesterday when a 31-year-old Mississauga man died after an apparent execution-style shooting at Square One shopping centre, purportedly Ontario's largest. It was noon when the gunman, whom investigators continue to hunt, walked up to a parked beige SUV and fired a number of shots at a man in the driver's seat. Local news reports compared the city to the "Wild West" and sprayed television screens with bloody images of wounded men undergoing surgery in inner-city hospitals and of the bullet-riddled SUV. "Overall, crime is down in Toronto, confirmed by last week's national crime figures. That is very encouraging news," Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair said in a statement yesterday. "The number of gun calls in Toronto is stable," he added, "but I have been concerned for some time at the willingness of small numbers of young men to engage in gunplay in heavily populated areas." Mayor David Miller told reporters he was "very concerned" about the shootings, adding, "The fact that our crime rates are dropping isn't enough." The Mayor blamed lax gun laws in the United States for some of Toronto's violence, saying half the firearms in the city originated in America. "It really is time to establish an effective strategy, working with the United States, to stop the easy access for guns that people are going to bring to Canada," Mr. Miller said. "It's a huge problem and it's just not acceptable." Beyond the Mississauga shooting, the gunplay enveloped five different Toronto Police Service divisions stretching from Etobicoke in the west to Scarborough in the east, with downtown gunfire near Chinatown and Regent Park. And yet, to Toronto residents, the violence has become strangely familiar. The city has been rocked in past months by apparently random gunfire, with passersby hit in shootings near the Yorkdale Shopping Centre, across from the Eaton Centre, and a mother of four shot in a north-end club. Some blamed the violence on the city's inability to provide opportunities for young minorities in a city that's become hyper-sensitive to issues of police racial profiling. "It's a social phenomenon and we've just refused to be serious about it," said John Sewell, a former Toronto mayor, who is with the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition, a police watchdog. "I think if it was happening in the white community, we'd be marching in there, trying to say, 'What do we do to stop all this happening so that kids aren't interested in guns and feel that they're part of the society.' " But Hamlin Grange, a Toronto Police Services Board member, refused to pick out a pattern in the guns flare-up. "These are separate and unrelated incidents," he said. While Toronto police maintain Monday night's shootings are unrelated, at least two appear to be echoes of past violence: A 30-year-old man shot at 10 p.m. in north Toronto took a bullet mere metres from where a 21-year-old man was shot the previous night, on Sunday, reportedly during a vigil for two area residents killed four years ago. Acting Staff Sergeant Richard Rogers said police had not determined a link between the two shootings. The 30-year-old victim was released from hospital yesterday. Meanwhile, a 19-year-old man shot in Scarborough was wanted by police in a May 8 shooting, Chief Blair said in a statement. The 19-year-old, listed in stable condition last night, now faces charges, including assault with a weapon. Chief Blair called the shootings "retaliatory in nature," perhaps to soothe the nerves of Toronto residents who may fear random gunplay could put them in harm's way. He also lamented how unco-operative some victims in the shootings remained yesterday. Sources said more than half either could not, due to their injuries, or would not aid detectives. Chief Blair noted the Statistics Canada numbers show the rate of crime in decline in the city. Only Montreal was deemed safer than Toronto, while Canadians have a better chance of getting shot in Regina, which has the country's highest homicide rate, than here. A 26-year-old man shot twice outside an Etobicoke restaurant was also released from hospital yesterday. A 27-year-old man wounded in an apparent failed robbery on Weston Road just south of Finch Avenue West was in stable condition. His 37-year-old companion, who was also wounded, was released from treatment. A 28-year-old man
shot at Church and Dundas streets remained in hospital in stable condition. |