

Sandie Benitah and Rachel D'Amore, CP24.com





Surveillance video obtained Thursday shows the scene of a brazen shooting just steps from one of Toronto’s busiest intersections that left one man dead last night.

It happened on Yonge Street just north of Bloor Street shortly after 8 p.m.

The grainy video, obtained exclusively by CTV Toronto, shows a male wearing a white hooded sweatshirt running north on Yonge Street followed by a second male wearing white running shoes seconds after the victim was shot.

In the bottom right corner of the fame, captured by a camera on the opposite side of Yonge Street, a pedestrian can be seen running around the corner. Two joggers can also be seen glancing back at the scene of the fatal shooting.

Police have said they are searching for three suspects in connection to the shooting. It’s not clear if any of the people seen in the video are the males police are looking for.

The male victim was rushed to hospital without vital signs. Police told CP24 Thursday that the victim – whose name and age have still not been released – was the intended target.

A woman, who identified herself as a friend of the victim, said the man was shot after getting into an altercation with a group on the street.

“He turned around to go in, and they shot him five times in the back,” the woman, who did not provide her name, said Wednesday night. “He dropped right away.”

She said she gave the victim mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Paramedics arrived on the scene shortly after.

Police said they are now searching for three suspects.

The suspects are all described as white males. One male was last seen wearing a black jacket, a second was wearing a baby blue jacket and a third male was wearing a white jacket.

Toronto police Const. Jenifferjit Sidhu told CP24 Thursday that a man was arrested in the area shortly after the shooting for discharging a firearm but was later released without charges. Sidhu said investigators do not believe he is one of the suspects involved with the homicide.

A witness on the scene Wednesday night told CP24 that he heard “five loud bangs.”

“Right away I thought that is not a car backfiring,” said Eamonn O’Hanlon, who was nearby at the time of the shooting. “Right away, they were pumping that lad’s chest pretty seriously.”

“The strange thing was there was no screaming, there was no shouting, there was no running away – people were just gathering around in front of him and in front of the paramedics that were working on him,” he added.

Yonge Street was closed between Bloor and Cumberland streets for several hours following the shooting.

Anyone with information is asked to contact homicide investigators at 416-808-7400.