Terror not ruled out in Toronto shooting

Concerns over gun violence rise in Canada's largest city

TORONTO - A man firing a handgun into restaurants and cafes as he walked along a Toronto street shot 14 people, killing two of them, before dying after an exchange of gunfire with police late on Sunday, police said, adding to concern about gun violence in Canada's largest city.

Police Chief Mark Saunders said the shooting in the city's Greektown neighborhood was not random, and he did not rule out terrorism as a motive.

Toronto police spokesperson Meaghan Gray said on Monday that a second victim had died, though there were no further details.

Saunders earlier said that a young woman had died in Sunday's shootings and that a girl aged 8 or 9 was in critical condition.

A video from one witness shows a man dressed in black clothes and a black hat walking quickly and firing three shots from the sidewalk into at least one shop or restaurant. Toronto's Greektown is a lively residential area with crowded restaurants and cafes.

The condition of the other victims was not known yet, police said.

Global News quoted a Toronto police source as saying that the suspect killed himself after opening fire on officers.

Witnesses heard many shots and described the suspect walking past restaurants and cafes and patios on both sides of the street and firing into them.

John Tulloch said he and his brother had just gotten out of their car when he heard about 20 to 30 gunshots. "We just ran. We saw people starting to run so we just ran," he said.

An army of police, paramedics and other first responders soon descended on the scene, while area residents, some in their pajamas, emerged from their homes to see what was happening.

Toronto Councilor Paula Fletcher said she heard that the gunman was emotionally disturbed. "It's not gang related. It looks like someone who is very disturbed," Fletcher said.

Mass shootings are rare in Canada's largest city and the country traditionally has relatively low levels of gun violence, particularly compared with its neighbor the United States.

However, Toronto police statistics show that, to July 14, there had been a total of 220 shootings with 27 fatalities so far this year, against 196 with 17 deaths for all of 2017.

Last week Toronto police started implementing the enforcement component of their "gun violence reduction plan". It includes around 200 additional officers on shift in particular neighborhoods between 7 pm and 3 am - when most shootings occur.

Mayor John Tory said there was "evidence of a gun problem" in the city.

"Guns are too readily available to too many people," he told a news conference two hours after the shooting took place.

Tory added that details of the latest incident remained sketchy and urged people to stay calm. "We have to figure out what happened here. We don't know," he said.

Police urged people to come forward with video or witness testimony.

The mass shooting came a few months after a driver of a van plowed into pedestrians on a Toronto sidewalk, killing 10 people. Authorities have not disclosed a motive. But they have said the arrested driver, Alek Minassian, posted a message on social media referencing a misogynistic online community before the attack.

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(China Daily 07/24/2018 page12)