The city's latest homicide victim arrived at a busy shopping mall Thursday evening when he was surrounded by four men, chased inside in a hail of bullets and died on the plaza's floor while horrified shoppers and employees looked on.

On Friday morning, Det.-Sgt. Mike Carbone of the Toronto police homicide squad painted a picture of what happened at the Sheridan Mall at Jane Street and Wilson Avenue during the busy dinner hour.

Police said Jovane Clarke, 22, died in a targeted shooting at Sheridan Mall Thursday evening. (Toronto Police Service)

The victim, whom Carbone identified as Jovane Clarke, 22, of Toronto, drove to the mall and parked his car in the parking lot at the south side of the plaza. Four men approached his car, and at least two shot at him. They then chased Clarke into the mall and continued firing at him, Carbone told reporters during a news conference at 31 Division.

Police and paramedics were called to the mall around 6:30 p.m., he said.

When officers arrived at the scene, they found Clarke's lifeless body. Despite attempts to revive him, he was pronounced dead at the scene.

While investigators are still working on identifying the four suspects and determining a motive, Carbone said he believes Clarke was targeted.

"This particular case is concerning," Carbone said. "It's very violent. It appears that these individuals were targeting Mr. Clarke. It's no doubt in my mind that that's who they were trying to kill."

Carbone said Clarke was not known to police. An autopsy was scheduled for Friday morning.

Det.-Sgt. Mike Carbone of the Toronto police homicide squad said Jovane Clarke, 22, of Toronto died in a targeted shooting at Sheridan Mall Thursday evening. (Martin Trainor/CBC)

He said Clarke was hit by multiple gunshots, but would not say exactly how many. He also could only say that at least two of the four suspects fired guns.

The only descriptions for the suspects Carbone had on Friday morning were that they were four black males in their 20s wearing dark clothing.

He said given the time of day, it was "very fortunate" that no one else was struck.

"As you can well imagine, both the mall and the parking lot were filled with shoppers and pedestrians," he said.

Police remained at the scene Friday, as the mall reopened at its regularly scheduled time. Cars that had to be left in the parking lot Thursday night as police investigated were released back to their owners.

Meanwhile, Carbone is asking anyone who witnessed the shooting and has either dash cam or cellphone footage to contact him at the homicide squad at 416-808-7400, or anonymously through Crime Stoppers at 416-222-TIPS. He would also like to hear from anyone who knows Clarke and interacted with him in the hours before the shooting.