Four suspects wanted in 2 shootings
After two men gunned down in North York, police say there are similarities in cases
Four suspects are wanted in separate shootings within three days that left two men dead in North York.
Police haven’t ruled out a connection between the brazen attacks.
“We can’t overlook the fact that there are similarities between the two,” said homicide investigator Det. Sgt. Paul Worden at a Sunday press conference. So far, however, police have no physical evidence connecting the crimes.
Among the most chilling observations from police in the fatal shootings of Jovane Clarke, 22, on Thursday and Awad Hurre, 34, on Saturday is the manner in which the men were killed.
“They went right up over top of them and fired numerous shots into the victims,” Worden said, describing the similar position the four suspects in each case took over the two dead men.
The suspects towered above the victims once they were lying helpless on the ground and fired more gunshots into their bodies, Worden said.
There were dozens of people outdoors, including kids playing at the basketball court behind the apartment building at 75 Tandridge Cres., when Hurre was killed.
Police were called to the building, next to Braeburn Woods Day Care Centre at Tandridge Cres. and Arcot Blvd., on Saturday at 8:45 p.m.
They found three different types of firearm casings on the scene, one of which came from a rifle.
“We do not have a motive for why he was targeted. For this level of violence and this type of overkill, there has to be a reason,” Worden said.
Hurre’s family is also without answers. His older brother told the Star that Hurre, the youngest of 12 siblings, was not involved in gang activity and had never had any trouble with the law.
Yusuf Ismail, Hurre’s nephew, also didn’t know his uncle to be wilfully involved in gang activity, but sus-
“He was always a more trusting person and that’s what most likely got him in this position.” YUSUF ISMAIL AWAD HURRE’S NEPHEW
pects he may have wound up associating with a dangerous crowd.
“He was always a more trusting person and that’s what most likely got him in this position — trusting the wrong people,” Ismail said.
Police are asking for people in the community who may have witnessed the incident to come forward and talk to officers who will be stationed in the area.
“For the amount of people that were in the area, I would have expected more information to have come in at this point,” Worden said.
Ismail said he doesn’t feel police presence in the community is con- sistent or involved enough.
“Yeah the police do show up, but I don’t really think they stick around to follow up,” he said.
“If the community thinks you just come in here and do your job and you go back home, they wouldn’t jeopardize themselves to talk.”
Hurre was pronounced dead at his apartment building, where the victim of Thursday’s shooting, Jovane Clarke, also lived.
Clarke was shot and killed after being pursued on foot by gunmen inside Sheridan Mall on Thursday.
Police say Clarke got out of his car in the mall’s southern parking lot, near Jane St. and Wilson Ave., and was targeted by four people.
One of the suspects chased Clarke into the mall and continued to shoot at him.
Hosai Balouch, a longtime employee of a shoe store in the mall, heard about five or six gunshots. The call to emergency crews came in around 6:30 p.m.
“It was so loud, you could feel it vibrate through your body,” Balouch told the Star Saturday.
Paramedics who responded to the call said the victim was suffering from gunshot wounds to the head.
Police are searching for four Black males in their mid-20s in connection with Clarke’s shooting.
In Hurre’s death, police are looking for four men seen in a silver vehicle parked near the area 20 minutes before the incident.
According to surveillance video, police said the suspects ambushed Hurre after he passed by them twice.
There have been about five shootings in the North York area since Wednesday, the latest leaving two men with injuries in the Black Creek neighbourhood Sunday afternoon. With files from Bryann Aguilar, Emily Fearon and Alex McKeen