Marlon James was frying plantains when he heard a shot. At first, it sounded like a firecracker in the courtyard, he said, but then he heard the “shattering” sound of bullets crashing through his kitchen window.

Officers were already in the area when gunmen shot and killed two men directly outside James’s home in a mazelike Toronto Community Housing townhouse complex at Driftwood Ave. and Grandravine Dr. shortly before 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.

It marked the end, Toronto police said, of a shooting spree that lasted a little over an hour at three separate crime scenes in North York’s Jane and Finch neighbourhood.

Both men were pronounced dead in a Toronto trauma centre. On Wednesday, police identified them as Delauntae Bryant, 24, and Eric Rowe, 20. They are the city’s 52nd and 53rd homicide victims of 2019.

The shooting spree began about an hour earlier, when a 16-year-old boy was fired upon by armed men just south of the Jane and Finch Mall. Police said the boy was wounded in the shooting but managed to escape.

Just after 9:05 p.m., police say the same gunmen shot up another townhouse complex, near Finch Ave. W. and Sheppard Ave. W. Shots hit several homes there but no one was injured, police said.

A total of eight bullet holes could be seen in the exterior of James’s home early Wednesday, three of them in the kitchen window that faces a tree-lined courtyard between rows of townhouses in the Yorkwoods Village community.

Speaking to the Star outside his home, he pointed to a hole made by a bullet that he said passed near his head. “The glass flew on me,” he said.

James said he ran to his living room to lie down and take cover. His younger daughter was upstairs with her mother at the time of the shooting, he said, while his older daughter wasn’t home.

James said he found one bullet lodged in a kitchen cupboard Tuesday night, and he thinks there might be two more somewhere inside his home.

“I’m happy to be alive,” he said as he left to take his daughters to school.

Earlier, as fire crews washed bloodstains into a drain in the ground nearby, several school-age boys could be seen poking at the holes in James’s window. Police forensic crews had long since left after working overnight.

A woman who identified herself only as Keisha said she lives across the courtyard. The mother of three said she too thought the shots were firecrackers at first — kids at the complex are “always setting off firecrackers,” she said. The sound of the gunfire was “po, po, po, po,” she said.

She said she opened her door to find one man who appeared to be dead on the ground beside a planter in the courtyard. She said the other victim, who was shot under James’s kitchen window, appeared to be breathing.

Police arrived as she got off the phone with 911, she said, and the officers performed CPR on one of the victims before paramedics arrived.

Keisha said she has never seen anything like it at the complex before. The courtyard is typically filled with children. “It could have been my son,” she said.

Investigators are reviewing surveillance video at the townhouse complex, steps from the Oakwood Community Centre, Const. Caroline de Kloet said.

Police are asking anyone who may have dash-cam video, security video footage or information about the incidents and the gunmen to speak with investigators.

Officers could be seen working at a white Ford SUV parked outside the Jane and Finch Boys and Girls Club, inside the complex just around the corner from the courtyard scene.

Several neighbours said they did not recognize the victims.

Another neighbour, a mother of seven named Asha, said she woke up to the sound of shots to see two hands holding guns silhouetted in her window, which faces the courtyard.

She said she heard two sets of about four shots before a group of more than three people ran south out one of two exits to the long courtyard. The victims had first tried to escape to the north, she said, but weren’t able to find that exit, past a new-looking playground.

One of the two men appeared to have been shot in the head, she said. She thought the other had been shot in his arm and his back.

The woman, who did not give her last name because she said she was afraid, said she had been searching for a new place to live, also with Toronto Community Housing, after her son was chased by gunmen about a month ago, just around the corner from the scene of Tuesday night’s double homicide.

“I have to move, man,” she said.

Gun violence continues to be at or near record levels in Toronto. As of Monday, 192 people had been killed or injured in shootings this year. That’s up from 77 by that date in 2014, marking the most shootings by Sept. 30 in any year in police records that go back to 2004.

Yorkwoods Village, a sprawl of lowrise townhouses off Driftwood Ave., has seen several incidents of violence in recent years. Two teens were killed in a shooting at the townhouse complex on Aug. 23, 2013. They were among several teens, all neighbourhood friends, within a small radius that year. On Oct. 10, 2007, a 30-year-old mother of three was killed after gunmen fired at least 20 shots at a backyard gathering at a townhouse in the complex.

Thirty people have been killed by gunfire this year in Toronto.

Including the Bryant and Rowe, 44 men and nine women have been killed so far. They are:

Ian Dyer, 36, was stabbed in a Toronto Community Housing building near Danforth and Midland Aves. on Jan. 6. Leigh Min, 34, was arrested two days later and charged with first-degree murder.

Lorraine Kerubo Ogoti, 30, was stabbed in an eighth-floor unit of a Scarborough apartment building on Jan. 8. Her boyfriend, Mowlid Hassan, 40, was found dead outside the building. Police have concluded Ogoti’s death was a murder-suicide.

Aseel Yehya, 18, was shot on Elmhurst Dr. near Redwater Dr. in Etobicoke on Jan. 9 after police said a dark-coloured vehicle approached him.

Lingathasan Suntharamoorthy, 36, was shot in an apartment building near Dundalk Dr. and Antrim Cres. on Jan. 12.

Hanh (Hana) Nguyen, 41, was stabbed at her home near Jane St. and St. Clair Ave. W., on Jan. 24. Austin Le, 40, was found at the scene and charged with second-degree murder.

Veronika Mrhova, 24, was shot while sitting in a Mercedes-Benz near Lake Shore Blvd. and Silver Moon Dr. early on Feb. 10. She died in hospital five days later.

Dean Howlett, 25, was shot in an apartment building on Lawrence Ave. E. west of Kingston Rd. in Scarborough on Feb. 12. Naod Tsegazab, 22, of Toronto, was later charged with second-degree murder.

Nicklus McKain, 18, was shot near 18 John Garland Blvd., near Kipling Ave. and Albion Rd., in Rexdale on Feb. 24. He died in hospital.

Jason Otis Lewis, 47, was found dead at an apartment on Broadway Ave., near Yonge St. and Eglinton Ave. E. on March 4. An autopsy found he died of blunt-force trauma. Quentin Luke Lewis, 42, was arrested two days later and charged with second-degree murder.

Nashwan Yonan, 32, was shot at a gas station at Eglinton Ave. E. and Avenue Rd. shortly after midnight on March 8. He died in hospital nearly two weeks later on March 21.

Martin Anthony Johnson, 51, was shot at a North York apartment complex near Keele St. and Sheppard Ave. W. on March 11.

Jennyfer Lachappelle, 41, was found dead on at an apartment near Davenport Rd. and Symington Ave. on March 13. Andrew Gerber, 38, has been charged with second-degree murder. Friends said Gerber and Lachappelle were in a relationship and may have been engaged.

Helen Fronczak, 79, was found dead at an apartment near Kipling Ave. and Eglinton Ave. W. on March 19. Larry Fronczak, 80, has been charged with second-degree murder.

Jerome Belle, 22, was shot near Dundas West subway station in the Junction at about 3:30 p.m. March 20. He died in hospital.

Rae Cara Carrington, 51, was stabbed in the PATH system near King St. W and Bay St. on April 10. Her son, Duncan O’Neil Sinclair, 19, of Toronto, was arrested two days later and charged with first-degree murder.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Wilfred Kent Truman, 77, was killed in his home near Eglinton Ave. W. and Black Creek Dr. on April 15. Kyle Truman, 49, of Toronto, has been charged with first-degree murder.

Jermaine Gerard Skeete, 34, was shot at 571 Vaughan Rd. near Oakwood Ave. on April 21. He later died in hospital.

Lawrence Taylor Gannon, 28, was shot on Ivy Green Cres., near Brimorton Dr. and Orton Park Rd., in Scarborough on April 28. He died in hospital two days later.

Premachchandran Sundaralingam, 53, was found injured inside a home near Renforth Dr. and Rathburn Rd. on April 28. He died in hospital the next day. Richard Turner, 48, of Toronto, was arrested on May 2 and has been charged with manslaughter, aggravated assault and threatening death.

Blain Gerrado Grindley, 26, was shot in Rexdale near John Garland Blvd. and Humber College Blvd. on May 1. Michael Smith, 29, of Toronto, surrendered to police on May 20. He’s charged with first degree murder. Police are still looking for Dayne Sitladeen, 27, of Mississauga.

Justin Kyle Ezeard, 23, was shot at a commercial establishment near Steeles Ave. W. and Islington Ave. on May 3. Shawn Vassel, 35, of Toronto, was arrested on July 10, charged with second-degree murder.

Brendon Bowler, 17, was stabbed near Sir Wilfrid Laurier C.I. near Guildwood Pkwy. and Livingston Rd. on May 6. Emmett Carew, 18, and Cheddi Itwaroo, 20, both of Toronto, are charged with second-degree murder.

Valland Spolarich, 43, was found dead at his home at Shanly St. and Westmoreland Ave. on May 21. Herculano Pimentel, 50, of Toronto has been charged with second-degree murder.

Hassan Gutale Ali, 52, was found dead in an apartment on June 6. Abdullahi Osman, 55, was arrested on June 12 and charged with first-degree murder.

James Andrew Smith, 52, was stabbed while he was standing at the door of 730 Yonge St. near Charles St. on June 8. Eric Bryant Ram, 24, of no fixed address, has been charged with second-degree murder.

Johnson Reyes, 61, was stabbed at Parkwoods Village Dr. and Gisburn Rd., west of Victoria Park Ave. in North York on June 28.

Jaydin Simpson, 17, was shot in a parking lot near Danzig St. and Morningside Ave. in Scarborough on June 28.

Christopher Teape, 25, and Ahmed Mohamud, 32, both from Toronto, were shot at an apartment building on Emmett Ave., near Jane St. and Eglinton Ave. W., on June 29. A third man was also shot, and suffered non life-threatening injuries. Denzil Kemoy Williams, 33, of Toronto, was arrested July 27, and charged with two counts of first degree murder.

Jordan Armstrong, 33, was shot inside Orchid nightclub on Peter St., near Spadina Ave., on June 30. Staff found the club promoter suffering from gunshot wounds at 3 a.m., and he later died in hospital.

Dwain Frederick Adams, 61, was assaulted in a restaurant near Queen St. E. and Sherbourne St. on July 1. He died in hospital on July 6. Patrick Gayle, 46, was arrested for aggravated assault, which was later upgraded to manslaughter on July 6.

Kathryn Niedoba, 36, was found with life-threatening injuries near Dovercourt Park on July 18 and died in hospital. Matthew Larmon, 43, of Toronto, was arrested the next day and charged with manslaughter.

Hanad Abdullahi Ali, 16, was shot at Falstaff Ave. near Jane St. around 1 a.m. on Aug. 1.

Grenville Johhnson, 56, was stabbed at a drop-in program operated by Wychwood Open Door on Aug. 7 at about 3 p.m. Glen McGregor, 57, of Toronto, charged with second-degree murder.

Kevin Reddick, 29, was shot in East York near Wakunda Pl. and Parma Ct., just before 2:20 p.m. Aug. 9. Two suspects are wanted in connection with the shooting.

Paolo Caputo, 64, was shot in front of his restaurant on Roncesvalles Ave., near Grenadier Rd., just after 4 p.m. Aug. 16. Police are looking for one suspect who fled the scene after jumping in a waiting car. Caputo was an associate of Montreal mob boss Vito Rizzuto.

Minh Le, 61, was shot in a North York plaza at around 10:50 p.m. Aug. 19. He died in hospital two days later. He was found lying on the ground in a parking lot near a McDonald’s drive through at Weston Rd. and Highway 401.

Abdikani Ismail, 33, of Toronto, was shot while he was driving on Weston Rd., near Jane St., at about 9:10 p.m. Aug. 21. The shooter’s car pulled up beside Ismail’s vehicle and started firing while both were still moving.

Alexis Charles, 46, of Toronto, was shot just after 5 a.m. Aug. 25 on Toryork Dr., near Fenmar Dr. and Steeles Ave. W.

A resident of Bendale Acres Long-Term care facility in Scarborough died on Sept. 3 after an altercation with another resident. He was taken to hospital where he died.

Nathan Lloyd Ashman, 36, of Toronto, died following an altercation at Jane St. and Wilson Ave. at about 9:10 p.m. Sept. 4. Troy Anthony Hinds, 43, of Toronto, was charged with second-degree murder.

Chiou-Shuang (Susan) Cheng, 40, was found dead inside a residence on Bonis Ave. on April 3 around 11:30 a.m. Followng a suspicious death investigation, 53-year-old Mansour Jalali, 53, of Toronto, was arrested on Sept. 7. He has been charged with first-degree murder.

Tharshika Jeganathan, 27, was attacked with a machete at Fishery Rd., near Morrish and Ellesmere Rds. on Sept. 11. Sasikaran Thanapalasingam, 38, surrendered to police later that day and charged with first degree murder. The two had been in a previous relationship.

Vito Lapolla, 72, was shot outside a café in the area of Dufferin St. and Glencairn Ave. on Sept. 16. Suspect jumped out of the car and shot him outside Tony’s Espresso Bar.

Charankan Chandrakanthan, 25, was shot in the parking lot of 3411 McNicoll Ave. in Scarborough on Sept. 19. Police charged 22-year-old Stouffville man, Saranraj Sivakumar, with second-degree murder and attempted murder.

Edwin McGowan, 52, was found dead Sept. 22 in an apartment building at 41 Antrium Cres., near Kennedy Road and Sheppard Avenue East. Police said the cause of death was severe trauma caused by assault. Peter Wight, 42, of Pickering, was arrested five days later, and charged with second-degree murder.

Donovan Betty, 21, was shot in the parking lot of 545 The West Mall on Sept. 24. Police are looking for a dark coloured sedan that fled the scene.

Robin Besito, 50, was found injured Sept. 24 at George Hislop Park near Yonge and Bloor streets. He was taken to hospital where he died three days later.

Amir Naraine, 21, of Toronto, was shot and killed on Sept. 29. His body was found in a car near Kipling Avenue and Steeles Avenue West. Police believe he may have been shot elsewhere.

In 2018, Toronto broke its record for homicides in a single year, with 96 in total.

With files from Ted Fraser, Jacob Lorinc and Miriam Lafontaine