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In that brief time, police say this man approached Staikos from behind and shot him dead, reportedly in the head, and left him lying there, where he died, in front of Pusateri’s Fine Foods. News reports indicate witnesses heard between three and five shots, one of which went across the street — across two sidewalks and four lanes of traffic — before shattering the glass door of the furrier Herman Sellers Gough, and lodging in the wall near the desk where the staff sits.

Photo by Facebook / Postmedia Network

The shooter is described by police as black, about five-foot-10, with a medium build. There is no description of the driver. Given the high concentration of security cameras in the area, police are likely to have other images of the car as it arrived and left.

The shocking killing follows soon after another brazen nighttime assassination further downtown, in the underground parking ramp of a skyscraper, where Jaiden Jackson, 28, was chased by three men in a car after he left a party at the Pick 6ix restaurant, co-owned by the rapper Drake. They caught him as he ran down the ramp and fell, and shot him 20 times where he lay.

There is no indication the events are related, but Mayor John Tory, responding to this and other recent gun violence, said the city will have to “redouble our efforts” to keep Toronto safe.

An autopsy on Staikos was to have taken place on Wednesday, but police said they have nothing yet to release about the results.

Staikos was not married but reportedly had a long-term girlfriend and lived in a condo several blocks south of the murder scene.