Toronto police chief warns of more violence after shooting

OTTAWA: Toronto’s police chief warned Tuesday of further violence in retaliation for a suspected criminal gang-linked shooting that killed two and injured 21 at a party in Canada’s largest metropolis.
Two people were killed and 21 others, including an infant, were struck by stray bullets after a fight broke out at a barbecue in the city’s east side late Monday.
Hours after the shooting, Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair appealed to witnesses to come forward with information that might help to identify and nab two shooting suspects, warning of “the potential for retaliatory violence... when individuals seek vengeance for the violence that took place.”
He said preliminary evidence indicated that “there were two individuals who were shooting firearms.”
“There is strong indication there may have been a gang involvement and individuals who are associated to gangs,” he told a televised news conference.
Police have stepped up patrols in the city and launched a “relentless” manhunt for the suspects.
Late Monday, police responding to the shooting swarmed a home in the city’s Scarborough neighborhood where up to 200 guests witnessed “an altercation (that) broke out between individuals” leading to the exchange of gunfire.
A “person of interest” was detained, but no further details have been released.
The gunfight resulted in “gunshot wounds to 23 individuals,” Blair said. Two of the victims — a 14-year-old girl and a 23-year-old man — were pronounced dead at the scene.
The rest, he added, were treated in hospital and “ranged in age from a 22-month-old infant who received a grazing injury and is expected to fully recover” to a 33-year-old.
Many suffered only “relatively minor injuries.” One male victim was still in surgery early Tuesday and listed in critical condition, but the others were “all expected to recover,” Blair said.
Toronto is still reeling from a rash of public shootings in recent weeks, including the killing of a man at a busy downtown shopping mall, another on a crowded restaurant patio while patrons watched a televised soccer match and a third shot in the chest after July 1 Canada Day fireworks.
Blair called the latest shooting “the worst incident of gun violence that we have had in the city.”
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, however, downplayed the various gun crimes as “a couple of isolated and unfortunate incidents,” while insisting that Toronto is still one of the safest city in North America.