One dead, five injured in Canadian shooting

“We see them everyday,” said one witness who described those shot as familiar faces in the neighbourhood. The shooting broke out just before 8:40 p.m. near Allen Road, south of Yorkdale mall.

One person is dead and five other people are injured after a shooting involving multiple suspects Tuesday night in the Lawrence Heights neighbourhood of North York.
Thank God, that ousted Trudeau has not started talking about Indian Connection even in this shooting !!!!
Investigators responded to reports of the shooting near Flemington Road and Zachary Court just before 8:40 p.m., Toronto police said in a post on X.
Police said a male victim has died. Four men and one woman were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds.
The victims’ ages range between 18 and 40, paramedics said.
Officers at the scene, just south of Yorkdale mall, set up a command post near Ranee Avenue and Allen Road, under the Allen Road overpass.
Investigators have “bits and pieces” of information about multiple suspects, Toronto police Staff-Sgt. Baheer Sarvanandan told reporters at the cordoned-off scene late Tuesday night.
He confirmed the man who died was in his 40s, and that no children were injured in the shooting.
Sarvanandan did not comment further about whether the shooting was targeted or tied to gang activity.
There is no threat to public safety, he said, adding almost every officer from across the city responded to the “large and complex scene.”
Sarvanandan referred to the walkway where the shooting occurred as the main scene and said there are multiple secondary scenes where the victims ran and received medical help.
Police need Wednesday’s daylight to fully search the scene for bullet casings, blood trails and items that may have been left behind, Sarvanandan added.

Cinny Chan and Cyrus Wong were relaxing in their nearby condo when they suddenly heard a burst of gunfire.
“I could hear maybe 10 to 12 sounds of bom-bom-bom,” Wong said. “I thought maybe it was fireworks.”
Looking over their balcony, they heard panicked voices and distant sirens. Below, they spotted a man, his hand wrapped, trying to flag down a car for help. Soon, he was joined by others doing the same.
After rushing downstairs, Chan and Wong were met by a swarm of officers with rifles and paramedics wheeling away multiple people on stretchers.
“I can see they are so scared,” Chan said. “I couldn’t see any blood or anything that happened to them, but I could see a few of them just wrapping their legs.”
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After returning from a trip to nearby Yorkdale mall, James, who declined to give his last name due to safety concerns, saw a line of police cars all racing in the same direction. Looking up the street, he saw an alley near Varna Drive blocked off — with what he estimated were nearly 100 police vehicles in the area, and all traffic stopped.
As officers searched the area, James said someone ran up, pleading for help for another person down the street.
“He was saying to police, ‘We got a guy over there on this side! He needs an ambulance! He’s going to die!’ ” James said.
Paramedics and officers sprinted down the road, sealing it off with yellow tape. Moments later, they returned with a person on a stretcher, performing CPR.
The Star spoke to multiple people who recognized the victims as familiar faces in the neighbourhood. Some residents said they grew up together; others had siblings who were close to them.
“We see them everyday,” said one woman.
Some of the residents in nearby townhouses said they heard a barrage of gunfire. One woman was returning from the store and saw two of the victims fleeing in different directions.
She immediately recognized one young man who was shot in the foot. “He was hopping around, I had to help him,” said the woman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
“I’m still in shock,” she said, looking at the crime scene.
Another woman who asked not to be identified due to safety concerns said she was walking home from Yorkdale Station when she came across three of the shooting victims minutes after the gunfire broke out. “Someone I saw yelled, ‘Hurry up. Get inside!’ ”
She said one man who was shot in the leg was lying on the ground screaming. Three people had rushed to help.
“They had a belt on his leg acting as a tourniquet,” the woman said.
Further down the walkway, bystanders were aiding a female victim who had “a bullet wound in the back of her thigh,” the witness said. “She was bleeding and curled up and crying on the grass.”
By then, the woman was on the phone with police but said she had trouble getting through. Several other bystanders were also calling 911.
At another section of the walkway, witnesses described seeing a man in a wheelchair being resuscitated by a family member until paramedics arrived. At the scene a few hours later, the wheelchair could be seen lying upside down with medical equipment strewn across the ground.
“It was a lot. It was really sad,” said one longtime resident. “To think there are innocent people and the shooters just don’t care.”
Sarvanandan said police had received reports that one of the victims was in a wheelchair but he did not confirm out of concerns it may identify the man before the family could be informed.
Dozens of police vehicles were stationed on Ranee Avenue, under the tunnel of Allen Road. Yellow tape cordoned off the sidewalks as pedestrians peered over, phones in hand, looking to get a view of the scene.
Other police vehicles blocked entry into Varna Drive, with officers ushering residents away from the area.
Scattered garbage could be seen along the walkway, including Tim Horton’s cups and discarded clothing as officers investigated the scene overnight into early Wednesday morning.
Olivia Chow said she is “disturbed” by news of the shooting, and her office is in contact with investigators, the mayor said in a post on X.
Chow thanked first responders for their efforts at a “busy and challenging scene.”