Three killed in Toronto crossbow attack
POLICE LINK TORONTO DEATHS TO BOMB THREAT
A35-year-old man is believed to have used a crossbow to kill two men and a woman on Thursday in the garage of an east Toronto bungalow, leaving them crying out in agony as they bled out onto a driveway.
One of the three victims managed to make a 911 call to alert police just before 1 p.m., but all were dead by the time the first officers arrived, according to Det.Sgt. Mike Carbone.
The suspect, who was also seriously injured, was taken into custody but has not yet been charged or named. The victims’ identities are also being withheld until their families are notified, but they are reported to be all related.
A little more than an hour after the killings, a separate criminal investigation was unfolding 20 kilometres away, downtown on the city’s waterfront. In response to an alert about a possible bomb threat, police dispatched members of the chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear team to a condominium building, and closed the surrounding street. Children at a daycare in the building were ordered to shelter in place until the threat was cleared around 5 p.m.
Police now believe these two investigations are somehow linked. It is not clear whether the report of the bomb threat came from the murder suspect himself, who was in police custody by that time, or from someone else.
Behind an orange police tarp at the murder scene, a large bloodstain was visible on the driveway of the well-kept bungalow, which has an ornamental butterfly by the front door. By the evening, rain was washing it away.
Jerome Cruz, who lives in the house that backs onto the murder scene, heard the commotion, a slamming door, and someone yelling “calm down, calm down,” and then screaming. This lasted about five minutes, then all was silent. His wife Vijaya was inside. She said they hardly knew their neighbours.