York University shooting injures 2 women

York University’s student centre was abuzz with people eating, studying, and chatting at its many tables — less than 24 hours after two female students were wounded there in a shooting.

A gun shot around 10:45 p.m. in the food court injured one woman in her leg and shrapnel hurt a second, Toronto Police said.

The gunman fled on foot and is still sought by investigators.

Both victims were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Police said they believe they were not targeted.

The suspect was going through the food court when a firearm was discharged, police said.

Cops are searching for a black man in his mid-20’s, 5-foot-8 to six feet tall, dressed in a black hooded sweatshirt and black coat.

As debris was swept from the crime scene, one victim prepared for surgery.

One of the two women — Namra Malik — confirmed she and her friend Annie Malik were hurt in the shooting and that both attend York University.

Annie was getting ready for surgery, Namra said in an online message to the Toronto Sun Friday but she was had been released.

The two women were first named in a story by Excalibur, the university’s student newspaper.

Excalibur video editor Ashley Mitchell was in her third-floor office above the food court when she heard a “sharp bang,” like a firecracker.

Peering down, the 22-year-old saw students running away and hiding under tables. She quickly locked her door.

A short time later, Mitchell reassessed the scene: “There was a girl who was under the table and it looked like some of her friends were around her trying to get her out, and she wasn’t moving.”

As campus security, police, and paramedics arrived, Mitchell began recording. Screams are heard in the video as paramedics tend to a person on the floor.

“I think once they started moving her, it was clear she was in a lot of pain,” Mitchell said.

Tamica Marcano, 23, said she was next door when “next thing you know, everyone was scattering out.”

As police arrived on campus, she and other students were ushered into lockdown at a nearby pub.

“It was pretty chaotic,” she said.

Jennifer Moore, 25, said the campus needs cops, not security.

“We need to have police in here,” she said. “We need protection.”

Jessica Thyriar, president of the York Federation of Students, pointed out “this could happen anywhere.”

“It’s just important to come together as a community and for us to work with the York administration to make sure that we’re making this campus safer,” she said.

A rundown of some incidents that have taken place on York University’s main campus:

    November 2012 — Police issued an alert after a 20-year-old was sexually assaulted while getting off a TTC bus.

    January 2012 — A peeping tom was chased from a women’s washroom on campus. It was believed to be his third incident of voyeurism.

    July 2011 — A 30-year-old man — who was not a York student — was charged with sexual assault after two women were attacked in a student residence.

    April 2011 — Qian “Necole” Liu, a 23-year-old student from Beijing was murdered. Liu was chatting on her laptop with her boyfriend in China when a man entered her room. Her body was discovered half-naked on the floor of her York Village apartment. Brian Dickson, 31, was charged with first-degree murder and will stand trial this month.

    September 2007 — York graduate Daniel Katsnelson and his friend Justin Connort broke into dorm rooms at the university. Katsnelson raped two first-year female students. He pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault and was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2010. Connort pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault and was sentenced to three years in prison in 2008.
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