A gunman killed two people and wounded at least 12 others in an attack in a Toronto Greek neighborhood on Sunday night. The suspect, 29, died after he exchanged gunfire with police, but we do not know as of now if police killed him or if he committed suicide.
Police Chief Mark Saunders said on Monday morning that the attack “was not random and he did not rule out terrorism as a motive.”
From Fox News:
Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said cops were investigating “every possible motive, including terrorism.” Saunders said a young woman was among the dead, and a 9-year-old girl was critically injured in the shooting.”I’m looking at every single possible motive for this,” the Canadian top cop told reporters. “When you have this many people struck by gunfire, it’s a grave concern.”Saunders said it was not clear if the gunman was killed by police or if he killed himself. The SIU said the suspected gunman, a 29-year-old man, was located by police on Bowden Street and “an exchange of gunfire took place.” The man fled the area and was located, deceased, on Danforth Avenue, according to the SIU.
CTV’s public safety analyst and former commissioner of the OPP [Ontario Provincial Police] Chris Lewis explained how the police will handle the situation:
“Was he inspired by some terrorist group? Was this a specific vendetta to kill a specific person and then he shot everybody else in his path?” he said. “That’s the big job of Toronto police. They can’t tell us a lot yet because they don’t know a lot yet.”People will feel an urge to “put it in a bucket” by ascribing a motive such as terrorism or gang activity to the shooting, Lewis said, although the truth can often be more complicated. He pointed to last year’s shooting at a Las Vegas hotel which left 58 people dead and more than 800 others injured.“They, to this day, don’t know why he did it,” he said.
Witnesses described a man dressed in black clothes with a black hat “walking past restaurants and cafes and patios on both sides of” Danforth Avenue “and firing into them.”
From The Globe and Mail:
Andrew Mantzios was having a coffee with friends by the fountain at Danforth and Logan Avenues – a popular gathering spot for residents – when he heard gunshots ring out, around 10 p.m.He turned and saw a man, dressed in all black, walking toward them with a handgun. “He had this horrible expression on his face.”The man, he said, was pointing his gun and firing at a crowd of people standing on the corner of the intersection, waiting to cross the street. Somebody yelled to get down.“And then a lady tried to run and she fell down,” Mr. Mantzios recalled. “He turned around and shot her point blank, two or three times.”As he and others in the square scrambled to the ground, Mr. Mantzios watched as the man criss-crossed along Danforth, shooting into businesses. He said a friend of his saw the man change the clip of his weapon.
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