Investigators believe a small group of people are responsible for most of the gun violence recently seen in Peel Region and the GTA, Peel police chief Nishan Duraiappah recently told Brampton council.

Like neighbouring Toronto, Brampton and Mississauga have seen an uptick in gang and gun violence in recent years. Last month, the provincial government announced $20.5 million in funding for Peel police to help tackle the problem.

“I have almost 90 officers assigned exclusively to the tragic homicides that we’ve seen — specifically in the last quarter of 2019 — that are working around the clock... I need to highlight it’s a very small group that are creating a significant amount of impact in the GTA,” he told council at a meeting.

Duraiappah pointed to the November 2018 fatal shooting of 23-year Sheridan College student Jason Ramkishun on Highway 410 as an example, which investigators believe was a case of mistaken identity.

Police made an arrest in the case at the end of January, but Duraiappah said that one case was connected to three other shootings including another on Highway 410 a week later near Steeles Avenue in Brampton.

“The one mistaken identity was responsible for three other shootings, two more on a 400-series and one in the region. It’s a small group of three or four individuals responsible for a significant impact on (that case),” said the chief.

Duraiappah said one of the main issues is bail reform. He referred to a meeting in January of GTA mayors and chiefs of police attended by both Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown and Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie with the province and federal government where the issue was top of the agenda.

“That was one thing that we wanted to focus on,” the chief said.” (These) are important issues that we would like attention drawn to because we can’t control what happens in the court process.”

“With added restrictions and other tools that we could put into legislation, we could probably mitigate that risk for that small percentage of people that create the greatest amount of harm in our community,” he said.

Brown added GTA mayors at the meeting were fully onside with the police chiefs when it came to bail reform.