Drive-by shooting kills one in Toronto

An unarmed woman was killed in a drive-by shooting in north Toronto early Sunday morning while on her way home from a funeral, police said.

Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders told a news conference that the incident — the fourth homicide in the city in 24 hours and 77th so far this year — is indicative of a “street gang subculture” that has become an ongoing issue for officers.

Video footage released by police shows a silver SUV circling a neighbourhood before passing a vehicle and slowing down. According to investigators, a passenger in the SUV fired a single shot.

Jenas Nyarko, a 31-year-old woman sitting in the back seat of the second vehicle, was struck and killed.

Investigators said the vehicle drove away, firing several other shots on its way. They did not release any suspect information.

“To have an individual shoot at a vehicle that is practically full of occupants and then to drive away nonchalantly ... ,” Saunders said. “They need to know that we’re going to do whatever we can to apprehend them.”

Det. David Dickinson of the force’s homicide squad said there’s nothing in Nyarko’s past to suggest she would have been targeted by the shooter, nor is there anything to suggest the three other people in the vehicle with her might have been targets.

Originally from Ghana, Nyarko moved to Canada in 2001 and worked at a shelter.