More than 200 people were at the party in the city's east end Monday night when gunmen sprayed the crowd with bullets.
Police Chief Bill Blair said 21 people were sent to hospital with gunshot wounds, including a 22-month-old child who was grazed by a bullet. Some of the wounded, aged between one and 33-years old, have been treated and released. One male is undergoing surgery and remains in critical condition.
Blair said police suspect the shooting was gang related.
"We believe from information that we have received to date that this altercation involved two individuals and as a result there was an exchange of gunfire," Blair told reporters Tuesday.
Police described the shootout, which involved multiple guns, as an "unprecedented" episode of violence.
Blair said the incident was "shocking to every Torontonian."
"I think it will be shocking to all of Canada," Blair said Monday night from the scene of the crime. "The level of violence is something we have never experienced."
Officials said the two people killed in the shooting were a 14-year-old girl and a 23-year-old man, but their names were not released.
Blair said the 22-month-old child did not suffer life-threatening injuries and was in stable condition.
The street was still strewn with empty water bottles and other remnants of the party on Tuesday, as swaths of police tape surrounded the area.
Tears shone in one man's eyes as he recalled walking out of a friend's house and into the crowded celebration just moments before violence erupted.
"I saw people running, I heard 'crack, crack' and I hit the ground," said the man, who did not want to be identified out of concern for his safety.
"It was like a Quentin Tarantino movie," he said, calling it the most frightening thing he had ever seen in more than four decades in the neighbourhood.
Police said they had one injured "person of interest" in custody and were looking for other suspects.
A number of area residents took to social media in the aftermath of the gunfire to express their shock at the violence.
"I'm praying for the people out there, now I'm hearing my family got shot," said one woman. "I just seen a 19 year old die. Honestly things just need to be peaceful."
Another young woman posted about 17 ambulances gathering outside her building and expressed her concern at the state of the neighbourhood.
"I see rum and beer on the ground and there is blood on my foot," she wrote. "(They) were spraying bullets at random people in my neighbourhood."
The incident took place before 11 p.m. on Danzig St., near Morningside Ave., and Lawrence Ave. East. The area was packed with police cars and emergency response vehicles late Monday night as crews ferried away the injured on stretchers and treated others on buses brought in as mobile clinics.
Some people shed tears as they spoke with officers while others watched crews work from behind a police perimeter.
"An altercation broke out among some individuals and there was an exchange of gunfire. During that gunfire a number of innocent bystanders were struck," said Blair. "It's a very shocking event, a lot of people were injured."
"This is a tremendously frightening and tragic event for everyone," said a grim-faced Blair, who called the incident an episode of "senseless violence."
Shannon Longshaw said the party, which she helped organize, started as an afternoon barbecue for neighbourhood kids. But even as the crowd grew later in the day, she said the festivities stayed friendly — until shots suddenly shattered the peace.
"Nobody fought. There was no fighting, nobody got into an altercation, none of that," she said Tuesday morning, after spending much of the night being questioned by officers.
Bruce Strachan has lived in the area his whole life, but said he's now thinking of moving away.
"This is shocking," he said, watching police comb over the scene.
"I've got my two granddaughters living with me here. I brought them up from Trinidad to be safe from this type of violence and it's right around my corner."
A variety of Toronto police divisions were called in to assist with the investigation, including the city's Guns and Gangs unit and the homicide squad.
While Blair said police were following up on a number of leads, he would not say if gangs were involved.
"We have a great deal of work to do," he said. "It demands our full effort to bring the persons responsible for this to justice."
In a statement issued early Tuesday, Mayor Rob Ford said he is "shocked and disgusted by this senseless act of violence."
"While we try to understand this tragic event, I want to assure residents that this horrific, criminal behaviour will not be tolerated in our city," said Ford.
Monday night's shooting came just weeks after a gunman opened fire in a crowded food court at Toronto's Eaton Centre. One man was killed instantly, another died of his injuries days later and several bystanders were sent to hospital.
As well, a man was gunned down at a cafe in Toronto's Little Italy on June 18.
And Jane Creba, 15, died after getting caught in the crossfire of a shootout between rival gangs on Yonge Street while it was crowded with Boxing Day shoppers in 2005.
Original Article
Source: huffington post
Author: Paola Loriggio
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