TORONTO

The victim of a deadly and “brazen” downtown shooting early Friday morning was targeted, police say.

Toronto’s Shmar Parris, 25, was behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Malibu near Mutual and Gould Sts. around 2:20 a.m. when an unknown number of suspects in a light-coloured SUV began shooting at him and his two passengers.

Parris, who was known to police and lived a high-risk criminal lifestyle, fled the scene with those in the SUV giving chase continuing to shoot, homicide Det. Steve Ryan said.

The chase ended with Parris slamming headlong into a hydro pole and those in the SUV stopping to fire more rounds into the Malibu before speeding south on Parliament St.

The SUV was last seen hurtling westbound on the Gardiner Expwy., around Bathurst St., moving erratically and at one point brushing up against the highway’s guardrails, Ryan said.

This likely caused damage to its right side, he said.

Parris was reportedly a rapper who went by the name of Murda Marz.

Ryan had little doubt Parris was in the shooter’s crosshairs before the car chase ever started.

“There are several bullet holes in that car, and it’s a pretty brazen attack, given where we are in the city,” Ryan said, adding that shell casings were found both where the shooting started and where the Malibu crashed. “(Parris) was known to police, and this attack ... was not random by (any) means. It certainly was targeted.”

Ryan said police found Parris slumped over in the driver’s seat. He was pronounced dead. A female passenger was treated in hospital for a bullet wound to her upper body, and a male passenger who was in the back seat suffered superficial wounds.

Alyssa Alanguilan, 24, who lives at the Neill-Wycik co-op on Gerrard St., close to where the shooting started, said she was rocked out of her early-morning slumber by the sound of gunshots.

“I heard about five pops,” Alanguilan said. “I’ve heard shots before living in this area — but never this clear or this many. It’s scary because I live here and I go grocery shopping right near where the shooting happened.”

— Files by Irene Thomaidis

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