

Chris Fox, CP24.com





Mayor John Tory says that he has spoken with Police Chief Mark Saunders in the wake of a string of shootings that left four people dead in the span of about 48 hours.

The wave of violence began late Thursday night when a 17-year-old boy, who had just graduated from high school, was gunned down outside a housing complex on Danzig Street. It then continued in the early hours of Saturday morning when three men were shot at apartment building in the city’s Mount Dennis neighbourhood, two of them fatally.

One of the victims that was killed in that shooting was in a wheelchair, according to police.

The most recent homicide occurred at a nightclub in the Entertainment District early Sunday morning. Police have said that the victim was found by staff shortly after last call. He was rushed to hospital with an apparent gunshot wound but was pronounced dead a short time later.

“I have spoken with Chief Saunders this morning and I have been in touch with him over the last few days on a fairly continuous basis. I can just say that the police are working very hard on these,” Tory said when asked about the violence at a Canada Day event on Monday. “They have had some help with people coming forward with information, he tells, me but we need more. We need more information and we need video that people might have.”

Tory said that there is nothing to suggest that the four recent homicides are “connected incidents” by the said that they do underscore the fact that there are people in the city who “carry firearms and are prepared to act in a senseless manner.”

There have been a total of 32 homicides in Toronto so far in 2019, compared to 44 at this point last year. There ended up being a record 96 homicides in 2018.

“We have to continue to work on that. I have been very outspoken in saying that we have to do more to make sure people don’t carry firearms and the public has to help simply by providing information,.” He said. “We also have to invest more in families and kids to make sure that people have more positive activities to participate in so they are not in any way finding attractive some of these gang activities we see in this city.”