Moment of violence
Surge of killings over the weekend pushes tally of fatal shootings up 38 per cent over last year
A deadly outburst of gun crime rocked the city over the weekend, killing four people in three incidents. The shootings have shaken a city already on edge, but experts say it’s crucial to take the long view of crime trends. ‘It’s not catastrophic, but I still don’t like those numbers,’ Chief Mark Saunders says
The surveillance footage depicts an eerie scene: a silver SUV driving down a residential street, slowing down slightly as it passes a stopped car, allowing someone inside to fire a single shot towards its four occupants.
The bullet killed Jenas Nyarko, a 31-year-old shelter worker sitting in the back seat of the car targeted early Sunday morning near Lawrence Ave. W. and Allen Rd.
Nyarko, whose death marks Toronto’s 47th homicide of 2018, is among the latest victims of gun violence during a spike in shootings in the city. She was one casualty of a violent 48-hour period that saw police called to probe five deaths, four of them fatal shootings.
Less than 20 minutes after Nyarko was shot, police were summoned to a home near Albion Rd. and Kipling Ave., where two men were shot to death. Then, early Monday morning, homicide detectives were on scene near Sherbourne and Dundas Sts., probing a fatal shooting of a man at a Toronto Community Housing building.
Some of the killings are part of an ongoing problem with “street gang subculture,” according to Toronto’s police chief. They have rattled a city already on edge from other recent shootings, including an incident earlier this month when two sisters, aged 5 and 9, were injured at a Scarborough playground.
“We are going to root these people out, gang by gang, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, block by block, and that’s exactly what the police service is doing,” Mayor John Tory told reporters Monday morning, stressing the city was safe but saying he was nonetheless concerned and angry.
As of Sunday night, fatal shootings in Toronto were up 38 per cent over this time last year.
That figure — the most recent available Toronto police statistics — doesn’t account for Monday morning’s shooting at Sherbourne and Dundas, which had not been declared a homicide by Monday evening.
In real terms, that represents a difference of six deaths: 22 shooting homicides compared to 16 at this time last year.
Total reported shootings are up, too: 199 so far this year, up from 170 this time last year and well above 2014’s year-to-date total of 87, although comparable to 2016’s 182.
But police and crime experts stress that while the recent shootings represent a shortterm surge, it’s critical to take the long view to understand crime trends.
“Obviously we are experiencing a peak and an increase in frequency, but we have seen this before,” Insp. Bryan Bott, head of the Toronto police homicide squad, said in an interview Monday.
Homicide numbers this year, for instance, are distorted by April’s van attack on Yonge St., a single incident which led to 10 charges of first-degree murder against Alek Minassian.
Without that mass casualty event, Bott points out that homicides to date in 2018 would be at 37, comparable to the 36 homicides that occurred to date in 2016, which saw its own spike in homicides early in the year.
Speaking to reporters Sunday, Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders said he was equally concerned about the uptick in shootings, noting there have been five more per month this year than last.
“That is not catastrophic, but I still don’t like those numbers,” he said.
Little is known about the most recent shootings, beyond preliminary information. Late Monday afternoon, Toronto police named Patrick McKen- na, 20, and Dalbert Allison, 40, as the men killed inside the home in the Lightwood Dr. and Sanagan Rd. area Sunday.
Police said that shooting occurred after a man knocked on the door and one of the two victims answered it. Investigators are looking for two men but only have a description for one, who was last seen wearing a black top and red track pants, his face covered by a hood or a mask.
“We are going to root these people out, gang by gang, neighbourhood by neighbourhood.” MAYOR JOHN TORY
Toronto police released little information Monday about the latest shooting in the city’s Garden District. Paramedics described the victim as a man in his 30s or 40s. The homicide unit was called in and is now reviewing video footage from inside the residential complex.
Investigators said Nyarko, the victim of the drive-by shooting, had nothing in her past to indicate that she could be the intended target of a shooting. Ho- micide Det. Dave Dickinson said it may simply have been a “case of individuals coming from one neighbourhood into another and shooting the first person they see.”
While he stressed that “any homicide is one too many,” Bott added that “it is very concerning to all of us in policing when we have a victim that has no background information to suggest why they may be involved in an act of violence.
“These type of murders obviously lead to more questions than answers in the mind of investigators and certainly the members of the public,” he said. Many homicides come with challenges, but shootings can be particularly difficult to solve, Bott said. Most involve guns that were obtained illegally, which means there’s often a connection to a criminal organization or street gang. That in turn can make it hard to find witnesses willing to come forward, one of the reasons why the investigations are more complex.
“It’s not that they can’t be solved, it just means that they take a lot more work,” Bott said.
That’s more work for a homicide squad that has already seen back-to-back high profile investigations, including the Minassian case and the ongoing investigation into alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur.
Bott acknowledged that recent months have been “a strain on everyone in the office,” but said the unit has support from Toronto police command and other parts of the service. He says he “couldn’t be prouder” of his staff’s commitment during an exceptionally busy time.
Tory told reporters Monday he was set to meet with Saunders to discuss how to “ensure every possible resource” was made available to police to catch those responsible for the recent violence. He noted a significant number of guns have already been taken off the street, as part of last week’s Project Patton raids, which targeted the Five Point Generalz gang.
Stressing the “city is still a safe city,” Tory vowed the criminals would be held responsible.
“They are not going to be allowed to prevail,” he said. With files from Ben Spurr, Star staff and the Canadian Press