Three loud bangs Mary Jane Brown thought were Victoria Day fireworks late Monday night were likely fatal gunshots instead.

“We heard this loud ‘bang, bang, bang.’ We thought it was fireworks,” said Brown.

At around midnight Monday, Toronto Police patrolling along Gerrard Street near Logan Ave. were flagged down by people in a car.

According to Const. David Hopkinson, police found one man in his 20s with multiple gunshot wounds to his torso.

He was rushed to a nearby trauma centre, where he later died.

But before he did, the man told investigators that there was a woman with injuries in a home on Cavell Ave., according to Det. Sgt. Mike Patterson, one of two investigators on the case.

When police arrived at the home, one woman was found without vital signs. She was pronounced dead when paramedics arrived.

Police believe the shooting took place at the Cavell Ave. home. They believe the deaths are linked, but it’s unclear exactly how, Hopkinson said.

The man’s death has been ruled a homicide, Patterson said, while police are awaiting the results of an autopsy expected Wednesday to determine how the female victim died.

“The first one is confirmed. There are multiple suspected bullet wounds in the deceased,” Patterson said.

“The other one isn’t as easy. We have a deceased female and at this time we can’t determine the cause of death,” Patterson said.

Her death is being treated as suspicious, and police are still looking for a suspect or suspects, Patterson said.

Bailie Kennedy, who lives two doors down from where the female victim was found, said there had been trouble at that unit before.

“Toronto Community Housing knows about it but they won’t do anything,” Kennedy said.

Toronto Community Housing spokesman Brayden Akers said that the agency works with police to remove tenants who pose a danger to the community or commit serious offences, but that eviction is considered a last resort.

“We try to balance the needs of the community,” Akers said. “We’re landlords but we try to go above and beyond in these circumstances.”

Bailie and her neighbours say that crime has been steadily increasing in the area in recent years and they say neither police nor Toronto Community Housing are doing enough to address the growing concerns.

“When I first moved in, there were cop cars on the street six out of seven nights in the first week,” Bailie said. “They asked us if we heard any cars speeding away late last night, but that’s pretty much every night for us.”

“You wouldn’t believe how bad it’s become,” said Kennedy’s mother Christine, who has lived on Cavell Ave. for almost 20 years.

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Bailie said a different neighbour had threatened her and her son. Drug use has been increasing but complaints to the police yield little action, she said.

With files from Fakiha Baig

Note – may 30, 2017: This article was edited from a previous version that referred to the neighbourhood where the shooting happened as Leslieville.