A woman who was shot and killed Monday night outside her condo building as she tended to her toddler was the victim of a targeted attack, police said.

"We do not believe this was a random attack. The gunman lay in wait for this woman and with absolute disregard for the victim and the safety of her small child opened fire," said Det. Sgt. Pauline Gray at a media conference at Norfinch Ave.

Police have identified the woman as 45-year-old Laura Rios. Neighbours said she lived in the condo at 2130 Weston Rd. where she was shot.

Police are looking for an older model dark vehicle with a loud muffler that headed southbound on Weston Rd. shortly after the attack. They are also looking for a man wearing a navy-blue hooded sweatshirt, grey sweatpants who is between 5-foot-10 and 6-foot tall. Gray said police have recovered some surveillance video of the scene.

"People did see somebody," said Gray. "It is just a matter of getting to people as we can."

Gray said there was no reason to believe Rios, whom neighbours say is a Colombian immigrant who ran her own shipping business, was involved in anything illegal and would not comment on whether she was known to police.

"It is an unfortunate fact that obviously, when a woman is killed, domestic is where you would look first," said Gray. "But every avenue is open at this point."

Gray would not reveal where the 2-year-old toddler was, or offer further details on how she was doing.

"We have safety concerns for everybody in this matter so we will just say the child is in good hands."

She declined to speculate on why someone would shoot a woman as she cared for a child.

"Adults have whatever issues they have. But this is a lovely innocent little girl. I can't imagine what she will have to do or have to go through for the rest of her life."

A postmortem has been scheduled for Wednesday.

Shortly after 8:30 p.m., as Rios pulled up to the building's underground garage in a pickup truck, her daughter strapped in beside her, the killer opened fire.

Police responding to a report of gunshots found her around 8:45 p.m., sprawled in a pool of blood behind the white Ford. A police officer carried the girl past the body after unstrapping her from the car.

The uninjured child was sitting in the pickup's cab, which had bullet holes in the door.

"I think the careful thing is not to look for a reason, because as far as I'm concerned, there is no reason," Gray said.

Rios's friends described her as a hardworking woman who came to Canada more than 20 years ago.

She built a shipping company specializing in sending large containers between Canada and various parts of South America. From sending a container or two every year, she grew the company to the point where it was sending a container nearly every month.

Mia Velez, who has known Rios for about 20 years, said she was outgoing and liked to go dancing together. Since her daughter was born, however, she had curtailed her social life to spend more time with her.

"She was an excellent person, good with the kids. She was bubbly, friendly," Velez recalled. "I don't know who would want to hurt her."

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She said Rios had two other children, both boys, from a previous marriage. Both were born in Canada and one, a teenager, still lived with her.

Her mother and much of her family remained in Colombia.