TORONTO: Ontario’s police watchdog says they’re investigating a 29-year-old man accused of opening fire Sunday night on a Toronto street, killing one person and injuring 13 others.
The Special Investigations Unit says the man exchanged gunfire with police officers before fleeing the area.
The agency says the man was later found dead nearby.
The incident began at about 10 p.m. in the Greektown neighbourhood, when a man armed with a handgun made his way down Danforth Avenue, firing as he went.
Police Chief Mark Saunders says a woman was killed and a girl, aged eight or nine, was in critical condition.
Few details were available about the other victims, and no motive was immediately released.
Witnesses posted many photos and videos, including a clip that appears to show a man, clad in black with a bag at his side, walk a few steps before lifting his arms in front of him as gunshots ring out.
Toronto Mayor John Tory called the shooting “a despicable act” and expressed outrage that someone had “unleashed such a terrible attack on our city and people innocently enjoying a Sunday evening.”
The mayor said the latest shooting happened as the city was still healing from a van attack that left 10 people dead just a few months ago.
In April, a white van mounted a sidewalk on a busy Toronto running down pedestrians.
Alek Minassian, 25, of Richmond Hill, Ont., now faces 10 counts of first-degree murder and 16 counts of attempted murder.
“We were so used to living in a city where these things didn’t happen and as we saw them going on in the world around us (we) thought they couldn’t happen here,” Tory told reporters Sunday night, urging people to stay calm while police carry on their investigation.