

Chris Herhalt, CP24.com





Toronto police have charged two men after a firearm notorious for its use in several U.S. mass shootings was allegedly fired at a group of people during an argument in Etobicoke’s Smithfield neighbourhood early Saturday morning.

Toronto police say that at 2:40 a.m. Saturday an argument broke out near a bar in the area of Highway 27 and Finch Avenue West.

Investigators allege two men fired two rounds from a handgun into a group of people. No one was struck.

Officers arrived at the scene and detained two men and allegedly found a loaded Intratec TEC-DC9 (“Tec-9”) pistol loaded with a prohibited magazine containing thirty rounds of 9mm Parabellum ammunition.

Two men identified as 39-year-old Inderpaul Flora and 18-year-old Justin Singh, both of Toronto, were charged.

Flora faces 10 charges including two counts of discharge firearm being reckless to life, while Singh faces three charges including one count of possession of a firearm obtained by crime.

Both men appeared in court at Old City Hall on Saturday morning.

Variants of the Tec-9 pistol were used in the 101 California Street Shooting in San Francisco in 1993, where nine people died including the gunman.

A variant of the Tec-9 was also used in the Columbine High School massacre, where 15 died including both shooters and 24 others were wounded.

The Tec-9 was also subject to the U.S. federal assault weapons ban from 1994 to 2004 when it expired.

In Canada, the Tec-9 is prohibited, meaning it cannot legally be purchased at all, but certain people who owned one prior to 1998 were granted “grandfather” privileges.