Toronto Police say a man in his 20s was shot near Lawrence Avenue and Allen Road

One man has been rushed to hospital following a shooting in North York.

Police say a man in his 20s was shot on Blossomfield Drive, near Lawrence Avenue and Allen Road, shortly after 1 a.m.

The man was taken to a trauma centre for treatment.

One man was rushed to a trauma centre after a shooting in North York.

Police have not released any information on possible suspects.


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Desire Waffo Tamwo, 37 of Toronto, is charged with sexual assault, sexual interference with a person under the age of 16

A Toronto man is accused of sexually assaulting a girl he was tutoring.

Police say the alleged incident took place on Nov. 4, when the man was tutoring the 12-year-old girl in her home.

Desire Waffo Tamwo, 37, was arrested Wednesday and charged with sexual assault, sexual interference with a person under the age of 16, and invitation to sexual touching.

Police say he has been employed by Tutor Doctor, a company that provides in-home tutoring services, since November 2016.

Tamwo is to appear in court on Dec. 13.

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Toronto Police close to tracking down scum who shot innocent man

The city has seen the shocking, gruesome and gutless attempted murder of an innocent man, thanks to video surveillance footage.

Now it will see the getaway vehicle that three cowards are believed to have used to flee the scene — like the criminal rats they are.

Thanks to today’s video technology, these slugs had better keep their eye on the door because the Toronto police are closing in.

On Wednesday, Toronto police released new descriptions of they want people to take a look at.

“Suspect #1 is described as unknown race and age, 5’10-6’0”, with a thin build. His face was covered with a light-coloured fabric and he wore a grey baseball hat, a light blue zipper jacket, light blue jeans, and black shoes.

“Suspect #2 is described as unknown race and age, 5’10”-6’0”, with a medium build. His face was covered and he wore a black hoodie with the hood up, grey track pants, and black shoes.

“Suspect #3 is described as unknown race and age, 5’11”-6’1”, with a thin build. His face was covered and he wore a dark blue hoodie with the hood up, black pants, and black shoes.”

These three creeps all took turns shooting their handguns into an innocent man at about 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, June 10, 2018, in a parking lot in the Jane St. and Driftwood Ave. area.

After robbing him, one of the thugs pistol whipped him — his gun discharged, sending the man to the ground in pain.

Even after the three took off, they all came back and took  turns emptying their chambers into him.

But thanks to this victim’s love of life, and the EMS paramedic heroes and emergency room physicians, nurses and surgeons, the 29-year-old man lived through it.

Six months later, after several surgeries, he remains recovering in hospital — fighting for the life that should already be gone.

The three reprobates who tried to kill him are, however, still on the loose.

“The disregard for human life is appalling,” said Supt. Ron Taverner. “It’s disturbing to watch this video — even for police who are used to watching such crime evidence. It’s so disgusting.”

However, if you can stomach it, police do want you to watch the video again. If you one or all of these armed and dangerous criminals, please call police or Crime Stoppers.

Police are working very hard on this. They have interviewed dozens of people and gone through extensive video. Thanks to this tireless work “investigators have identified a vehicle of interest which was in the immediate area at the time of the shooting.”

That vehicle is described as a “black 2017 or 2018 Honda Civic, with a partial plate of _ _ _ _ 229.”

Somebody knows this vehicle. Somebody knows who these three miscreants are.

Knows is the time for that somebody to be a hero and drop a dime on them to make sure they can’t ever hurt anybody else.
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Man sexually assaulted woman in downtown Toronto

Cops are hunting a man who allegedly sexually assaulted and punched a woman downtown early Wednesday.

Toronto Police say a 25-year-old woman was walking in the Yonge and Elm Sts. area around 1:10 a.m. when a man riding a red bicycle sexually assaulted her.

When the woman confronted the man, police say he punched her in the face, then fled.

The man is described as 30-35 years old and 5-foot-6 with a medium build, shaved head or bald, and a mustache. He was wearing a black leather jacket over a nylon Blue Jays jacket, and black pants ripped in the front.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 416-808-5200 for Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477).

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Jermaine Smith, 31, of Toronto and Maurice Webb, 31, of Ajax busted for Scarborough bank robbery

Two men were busted for an armed bank robbery in Scarborough after police say their getaway car crashed on Monday.

Toronto Police allege the men – one armed with a shotgun – broke into a Steeles Ave. E. and Markham Rd. bank while it was closed and confronted an arriving employee around 8:45 a.m.

The victim was robbed of personal items and held by the neck, police said Tuesday. The duo “obtained money,” then fled in a vehicle.

Nearby officers responded and followed the vehicle, which crashed.

The pair fled on foot, but were arrested after a violent struggle with police, who found an imitation shotgun in the crashed getaway car.

Jermaine Smith, 31, of Toronto, is facing 13 charges including break and enter, robbery with a firearm, forcible confinement, using and pointing a firearm in the commission of an offence, and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle.

Maurice Webb, 31, of Ajax, is facing eight charges including robbery with a firearm, break and enter and fail to stop for police.

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Toronto resident Paul Tonya 47 is 91st homicide victim of 2018

 Toronto police have identified the 91st homicide victim of 2018.

Emergency crews were called to the area of Queen Street East and Sherbourne Street at around 3:30 p.m. for reports of an assault on Friday.

Upon arrival at the scene, officers said they located a man suffering from “serious trauma.” He was subsequently taken to a hospital to be treated for his life-threatening injuries but was later pronounced dead.

 The victim has been identified by police as 47-year-old Toronto-resident Paul Tonya.

Investigators said a post-mortem examination has not yet been scheduled in this case.

A suspect, identified as 45-year-old Toronto-resident Trevor Clarke, was taken into custody at the time of the incident. He has since been charged with one count of manslaughter.

Clarke was scheduled to appear in court on Monday morning.

Toronto’s homicide count was pushed to a record-high over the weekend, surpassing 89 murders in 1991.
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Cardinal Licorish, 23, of Ajax, was fatally shot in a TCHC building stairwell in Scarborough on Nov. 18, 2018

Residents at the Scarborough building home to the city’s 90th murder say it was just another in a string of hellish incidents at the Toronto Community Housing complex.

Police were called to 4175 Lawrence Ave. E., near Kingston Rd., at about 1:30 p.m. Sunday for the record-setting murder.

Cardinal Licorish, 23, of Ajax, was found shot to death in a stairwell.

Residents say the building is a violent drug den, where they live with bed bugs and homeless squatters defecate in stairwells. On Monday, building management was repairing the locks on two apartments on the eighth floor that had been kicked in over the weekend in apparent robberies.

Brenda Muscott’s door was one of them. She said it was nothing new.

According to her, the murdered man, who went by the nickname Gucci, was involved in drugs and she would let him stay with her on occasion.

“No one knew his real name,” she said. “I’m in shock, but I don’t have any emotions any more and I can’t cry.”

One resident, who didn’t want to be named for fears of being beaten up, said that crack users run the building.

“People sleep in the stairs and it stinks of urine. There are cameras in the building but nobody does anything. This is like living in the East Detention Centre,” the man said.

“People sit right in front of the building and get drunk and fight. I don’t come out of my apartment after 5 p.m. because that is when the crazy starts.”
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Toronto’s homicide record and what we can do about it

The left leaning Toronto Star cherry picking stats/opinions from heavily biased sources 
 
It is a number. A number that grew incrementally and in jumps, over days and weeks and months this year, with the stopping of each human heart, each of which belonged to someone who was loved by somebody.

With Toronto’s latest homicide, a shooting on Sunday in the West Hill neighbourhood of Scarborough, the number has become a record.

With 44 days to go in 2018, Toronto has this year seen more homicides, 90, than any other year in the city’s history.

I’ve covered crime, policing and injustices in the justice system for more than a quarter century. I’ve seen how policies intended to save lives are born from moments like this — and often result in minor improvements, or nothing at all.

This number —should remind us how much we already know about what causes violent crime, and how to stop it.

And, what to avoid.

Toronto lawyer Annamaria Enenajor stresses the importance of understanding the context of the shootings and homicides “because they do not happen in a vacuum.

“If our city is serious about tackling our rising murder” numbers, she says, “we need to resist the temptation to respond with ‘fire and fury’ empty rhetoric of being tough on offenders.”

This piece is meant to give you some context for the record number — and ways to move forward.

It draws on an in-house database of Toronto homicides, maintained by Star librarians, which dates back to 1960.

First, the number

With 47 people killed in shootings, 19 by stabbing and 24 by other means so far in 2018, the city on Sunday passed the previous record of 89 homicides, set in 1991, a year that also saw highest per capita rate of killings — 3.8 per 100,000 — of any in our records.

But that year appeared to be an outlier — the homicide rate was lower immediately before and after 1991, and most years since have been closer to the city’s long-term average of 2.4 killings per 100,000, dating back to 1976.

Only two other years have seen rate higher than 3 per 100,000: It was 3.0 in 2005, the so-called “Year of the Gun,” and two years later in 2007 it was 3.2.

It’s not yet clear if 2018 will also be an outlier: In 2017, Toronto’s per capita homicide rate was 2.2; It was 2.5 in 2016; In 2018, the city has so far maintained a homicide rate of about 3.5 per 100,000.

If that pace continues — and it may not, there are often fewer killings in colder weather — the city would see 105 killings this year.

Criminologists and sociologists who study crime trends warn against drawing conclusions based on short-term data. Based on the past 20 years of data, University of Toronto sociologist Akwasi Owusu-Bempah says “nothing signals to me that there has been an increase in either gun-related incidents or homicides.”

That’s in part because 2018 was, of course, an outlier for a different reason — Toronto this year experienced two mass killing tragedies. A van attack on citizens on Yonge St., a shooting on the Danforth. These events are thankfully rare in Canada, but affect the homicide rate.

Shootings are more common, and account for a larger share of deaths

Reported shootings — where someone was shot at, or shot — are trending up in Toronto, according to Toronto police figures, as are firearm-related violent crimes in Canada overall.

Sixteen of the country’s 26 largest cities have seen increases in firearm-related violent crime rates since 2013, including the Toronto census metropolitan area (CMA), which had a rate of 35.7 per 100,000 in 2017, up from 17.8 in 2013. 

Nearly half of the national rise in rates of firearm-related violent crime — defined as incidents in which a firearm was used or present and relevant to a crime — since 2013 are due to more reported victims in the Toronto CMA.

Yet, Hamilton, Regina, Winnipeg and Saskatoon all had higher firearm-related violent crime rates than Toronto last year, with Winnipeg highest at 58.4, per 100,000.

Despite the increase in firearm violence, Canada’s homicide rate between 2013 to 2017 stayed at or below average over the past 20 years, ranging from 1.5 to 1.8 per 100,000.

Toronto police reported that there have been 362 shooting occurrences and 492 shooting victims as of Nov. 11, up from 162 and 211, respectively, at the same time in 2014. Of 2018’s shooting victims, around 10 per cent were killed, a lower death rate than in 2014, when it was slightly more than 12 per cent.

Why is that? In part, it’s because trauma medicine is improving, saving lives that in the past would be counted in homicide rates. It means more survivors surviving what can be near-catastrophic injuries, and lasting challenges and impacts on their lives.

Still, the proportion of homicides caused by guns has gone up over time. Since 1960, the average proportion of homicides due to shootings is 37 per cent, or slightly higher than one in three, according to the Star’s database. Since 2005, the same number is 53 per cent, or one in two.

What’s behind the shootings

In 2017, the City of Toronto’s Community Crisis Response Program, which responds to shootings and other violent incidents and works with communities to focus on crisis intervention, prevention and preparation, identified four firearm violence trends: increasing access to firearms; “violation” of spaces considered safe; escalation on social media; and more demands on victim services.

Changing demographics, particularly in the population of “high-risk” of arrest age groups — from age 15 to 29 — can also be a factor in crime rates. During steady crime declines in both Canada and the United States in the 1990s, those “high-risk” populations were also declining.

What else could have been responsible for the decrease? In that decade, the U.S. increased its use of incarceration as violent crime rates fell, but Canada did not. Canada also saw a decrease in police officers per capita, and an increase in unemployment, even as violent crime rates fell.

As it happens, Toronto’s population of young people aged 15 to 29 has been growing in the two decades since the ’90s and in 2017 was the highest in 30 years, according to Statistics Canada figures.

Many of the victims and offenders of violent crime, notes University of Toronto criminology professor Scot Wortley, are “young minority males from our most socially disadvantaged neighbourhoods.”

Wortley warned in a 2008 report for the Ontario Roots of Youth Violence inquiry that Toronto, with increasing divide between rich and poor and poverty, was at a crossroads and might see the higher crime rates seen in the U.S.

“Has that trend continued? I would say ‘yes,’” says Wortley. “Toronto has become increasingly expensive and poverty, social alienation and hopelessness has become even more pronounced. The current rise in violence that we have witnessed this year may reflect those larger social and economic trends. Unfortunately, if things do not change, this new violence may become the new normal.”

Ask Wendy Cukier, a Ryerson University professor and president of the Coalition for Gun Control, the one thing politicians and governments should definitely be doing to have the greatest impact on addressing violent crime, and you’d be wrong to guess reducing access to firearms — although that would be No. 2, tied with intelligence-led enforcement.

“If I were ‘Queen of the World’ in trying to find out systems that would drive change, there’s no question that making sure kids have a chance to be successful is where you’d put your money,” says Cukier.

“There’s tonnes of evidence that early childhood intervention and supporting families, all those kind of things, can have a real impact.”

Treating violence and gun violence as a public health issue — a disease like any other — provides the best approach, says Cukier, as well as a growing chorus of other experts.

The violence — and all that comes with it, including fear and PTSD — disproportionately impacts poorer, racialized communities, places where there are fewer opportunities, strained relationships with police, fewer services, higher rates of unemployment, and young people vulnerable to the allure of gangs — and guns.

In a February report to the Toronto Board of Health, Toronto District School Board Trustee Chris Glover and Bobbak Makooie argued that the growing gap between rich and poor in Toronto may mean more violent crime may become a new normal, and that community exposure to it should be considered a social determinant of health.

Rather than responding to each crisis, the response to violent crime requires a “major shift in the economic trend and a radically different approach to addressing community violence,” concluded Glover and Makooie.

The policing piece

Despite the national increase in violent firearm crimes, some — including media pundits, a Toronto police sergeant and a failed white nationalist mayoral candidate — have cited the Toronto Police Service’s 2015 cessation of the controversial practice of carding, the police practice of stopping, questioning and documenting citizens in non-criminal encounters, and the 2017 mothballing of the also controversial Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy (TAVIS) as prime reasons for the violence. Outgoing Peel Regional Police Chief Jennifer Evans has also claimed new provincial carding regulations have “empowered” criminals.

Let’s look at what was happening, and when.

In 2007, a year after TAVIS was introduced, Toronto’s homicide rate spiked to its second highest level since 1991. It was above average the next year, and remained below average until 2016.

Carding was suspended in 2015, but carding levels had already plummeted in the summer of 2013 when police were asked to hand out receipts to the people they stopped. Despite this, from 2013 to 2015 Toronto’s homicide rates were among the lowest in the past 30 years, hovering slightly above 2 per 100,000. They rose somewhat to a still-below-average 2.2 in 2017, before spiking this year.

Homicide milestones in Toronto

1991

A record is set in Toronto, both for the number of homicides, 89, and for the homicide rate, at 3.8 per 100,000. The average homicide rate for Toronto, from 1986 to 2017, is 2.4. In 1992, Toronto saw 63 homicides, and a homicide rate of 2.7. 1991 proves to be a blip.

1994

A patron at Just Desserts, an upscale shop in an upscale part of Toronto, is shot and killed in a botched robbery. A police officer is shot and killed two months later by a man who had been ordered deported. In response, the Canadian gun registry is born, and Ottawa makes it easier to deport immigrants with serious criminal records.

2002 – 2004

A violent turf war between two east Toronto gangs leaves 11 people killed in shootings, and many more shooting incidents, over a 12-month span. This leads to two gang crackdowns by police and a Community Safety Action Plan, including training funds for and $500,000 from the province for jobs for young people.

2005

Dubbed the “Year of the Gun,” Toronto hits 80 homicides, 53 of which were shootings. On Boxing Day, seven people were hit by bullets in a shooting near the Eaton Centre. A 15-year-old innocent bystander is killed. In 2006, in response, the provincially-funded Toronto police Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy unit was launched. The province provides an initial $5 million for TAVIS, part of a $51 million crime package announcement that includes hiring more police and expanding courtrooms for complex gang trials.

2007

Toronto sees 86 homicides, half of which were shootings. The homicide rate reaches 3.2 per 100,000 people, the highest rate since 1991. A 15-year-old high school student is shot dead at his school. This leads to a provincially commissioned “Roots of Youth Violence” report in 2008, and recommendations to stem the violence, many of which are not acted on.

2011

Toronto’s homicide rate drops to 1.8 per 100,000, the lowest in the Star’s analysis of rates from 1986 to 2017.

2012

Canada’s long-gun registry is killed by the federal Conservative government, and the data destroyed. Two people are killed and six injured in a shooting at the Eaton Centre. Two people are killed and 20 injured in a mass shooting incident at an outdoor party on Danzig St. The following summer, police launch a $2 million, seven-week summer safety initiative that added the equivalent of 300 officers to the streets.

2013

Mid-summer, the police practice of carding plummets after officers are instructed to hand out receipts to those they stop, question and document, in encounters that involve no criminal charges. The homicide rate is 2.1 per 100,000, below average. It remains below average until 2016, when it rises to slightly above average.

2013 – 2017

Seventeen of Canada’s 26 largest cities, including Toronto, see increases in firearm-related violent crime.

2015

With carding continuing to decline in Toronto, Toronto police suspend the practice of loading personal details gleaned from carding encounters into a massive database.

2017

There are 65 homicides, and the rate drops below average, to 2.2 per 100,000. Shootings account for 60 per cent of the deaths, the highest proportion since 2005, the “Year of the Gun.” TAVIS, the controversial Toronto police unit born out of that year, is disbanded in 2017.

2018

Ten people are killed in an April van attack on Yonge St. Two young people are killed in August in a mass shooting on The Danforth. Toronto surpasses the annual record high 89 homicides of 1991 on November 18, 2018. The city, relying on provincial and federal funding, steps up police enforcement, which includes 200 more police on the streets during the summer, a number achieved through overtime. Premier Doug Ford announces $25 million over four years to address gun crime and gang activity in Toronto, with $18 million earmarked for police, and another $7.5 million toward a “legal SWAT teams” in provincial courthouse to make sure “violent gun criminals” are denied bail.

New York City saw predictions that violent crime would spike after it ended the similar practice of stop and frisk. That didn’t happen, and studies have found no apparent correlation between the two.

Both carding and TAVIS produced racially-skewed outcomes and increased levels of public mistrust, and not even the Toronto police union supports their return. But there is talk of replacing them with some new practice that is analytics- and intelligence-led. Police Chief Mark Saunders, a police spokesperson said recently, is endorsing policing efforts that are “focused and strategic so our members can target the right people at the right time.”

Toronto police also recently expanded its neighbourhood officer program for a minimum two-year period. Unlike TAVIS, which sent teams of officers flooding areas of the city they were not familiar with, the neighbourhood officer program is a throwback to the days when officers got to know the people they police by walking the beat.

“We hope it will lead to interventions rather than apprehensions,” Deputy Chief Peter Yuen told the Star earlier this year. “This is an investment piece.”

Why ‘tough on crime’ is not the answer

“Tough on crime” policies — imposing tougher conditions and mandatory minimum sentences, which send more people to jail for longer periods — may be politically and publicly popular but have proven to be costly and ineffective at making communities safer.

Federal governments of all political stripes in Canada have gone down this path, to varying degree.

A 2015 study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives found tough on crime measures imposed by the Stephen Harper government had “the opposite effect of setting the community up for danger by keeping people in prison longer without effective programming and by dismantling transitional supports that assist with community reintegration.”

And yet, moral panics — often sparked by rare, horrific crimes or a homicide number like this year’s — have historically led to more “tough on crime” stances and policies that lean heavily toward enforcement.

Following the mass shooting on the Danforth, city council also approved a five-year, $44 million plan to combat gun violence, which relies on provincial and federal funds. In 2018, $7.4 million was earmarked for stepped-up enforcement and new CCTV cameras, while just over $1 million was to go to community initiatives. In other words, a small fraction of the funds for enforcement.

And the Star’s archives are littered with examples of short-term funding announcements for community programs that lapse when the money runs out.

In 2008, the Youth Employment Local Leadership program in Scarborough shuttered when government funding timed out. Prevention Intervention Toronto, a gang prevention program, saw its funding come to an end in 2013, despite calls from the city to keep it running. And this past August, it was Scarborough gang prevention program Taking Action to Achieve Growth Success that came to its end of a funding cycle.

The programs die. Only to be reintroduced in some other form. It’s a tragic version of the movie Groundhog Day.

We need more early, smart investments

It’s been said, pay now or pay later, and with violent crime and its financial and other impacts on society, research has shown the later costs are far greater than the costs of investments in proven early supports and interventions that improve and save lives.

Of the excellent programs that do just that, Pathways to Education — born out of Toronto’s Regent Park in 2001 and now helping thousands of young people in eight provinces — shines as an example of how supporting young people living in low-income areas through their high school years delivers results.

About 40 per cent of its funding comes from corporations, foundations and individuals, and the remainder from provincial and federal governments. Ottawa recently announced secure funding for another four years as part of its poverty reduction strategy.

In other words, fairly stable funding.

“What the real issue for us is, is demand,” says Pathways CEO Sue Gillespie. As of September, there are about 6,000 young people enrolled in the program across Canada but “probably 30,000 students, easily, that could benefit from a program like this,” says Gillespie.

Pathways seeks to level the educational playing field by offering academic supports, financial supports, including money to get to and from school, and providing an advocate for students through high school.

According to independent reviews, the program improves graduation rates and entries into post-secondary education. Although it’s difficult to measure the impact of violent crime, it no doubt has an effect — school suspensions and dropout rates are known factors in youth crime.

“It’s about development, and it’s about how young people develop and understanding when your opportunities are, and we know that when students transition into high school, there is a lot going on,” says Gillespie.

It’s essential, she says, to be aware of critical points in young lives and “make sure all the supports are available ... so that when they’re hitting up against some roadblocks, for whatever reason, or they just can’t imagine a future for themselves, it’s important to have those supports there like Pathways.

“It’s the timing, and being there early ... and really important to take that community approach.” 
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Toronto 90 murders too many, thanks to failed policies of John Tory

No more excuses. Just solutions.

And instead letting those who helped create the deadly problem spin their nonsense, replace them with people who don’t tie the police’s hands behind their collective back.

When you are at a record 90 murders, those who made the decisions to end information carding, cut TAVIS, the size of the guns and gangs unit, not have enough deployment strength to staff some murders and who bowed to anti-police activist groups should not be the ones explaining how to repair it.

What has happened in 2018 — which still has six weeks to get to 100 homicides — is as disgraceful than suggestions this is merely a bigger city than it was in 1991, which saw 89 murders.

Toronto only had 66 last year, you’ll remember.

Those who talk about asterisk on the 10-murders in one day Yonge Street van attack avoid asking how many could have been killed along the Danforth or in playgrounds but were saved by EMS!

Don’t just count the homicides. Count the bullets.

Blame political correctness and soft-on-criminals politicians.

Premier Kathleen Wynne and her Attorney General Yasir Naqvi deserve most of the criticism. Rather than support police they stripped them of their effectiveness.

The Liberals’ asinine mantra to put almost everybody out on bail (many of whom were already out on bail) until their trial was tantamount to malfeasance.

“This homicide total is not something anyone, including me, can accept,” admits Mayor John Tory.

“The people of Toronto know there is no magic answer, and we all pray that events like the Yonge Street van attack, which took ten lives earlier this year, will never happen again.”

You can tell he doesn’t know what to do. Even he must know prayers or magic are not enough.

Tory says people know there’s no magic answer, but they also know the record happened on his watch.

They also know he caved to the Wynne government and their failed policies and buckled to activists without careful consideration of the consequences of handcuffing police.

Racial profiling is unacceptable, intolerable and dispicable.

But people know the mayor should have stood up for the police and advocated a simple removal of imposed quotas that could have reduced carding concerns. Without some form of street checks that permits police to keep tabs on criminals and suspicious activity in high needs neighbourhoods, there’s little to keep gangs and criminals from carrying guns freely, and using them – which is exactly what’s happened.

Instead, Tory and his Liberal friends suspended policing in Toronto.

“I am absolutely determined to see us do better next year and every future year. I know with the public’s help we can keep Toronto safe.”

Sound convincing?

Will his David Miller-esque ban on legal guns owned by target shooters and collectors keep one illegal gun out of gangsters’ hands?

Tory should not be the one leading efforts to reduce gangs, guns, shooting and murder in Toronto.

If he wants to help, he could start by vacating his seat on the Toronto Police Services Board in favour of someone who has not failed so miserably on this file.

Thanks to the poor decisions of politicians, just about every thug on the street are freely carrying guns because they know police are powerless.

All because a few people with agendas, politicians threw out common sense and handed the city over to the killers.

The result is a record 90 murders — many innocent victims caught in the crossfire of this madness.

Rest in Peace Rocco Scavetta, 65, Ruma Amar, 29, Nnamdi Ogba, 26, Matthew Staikos, 37, Jenas Nyarko, 31 Reese Fallon, 18 and Julianna Kozis, 10.

There are no excuses for your murders and no solutions to prevent the next innocents to join you in death.
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Toronto's record-breaking 90th homicide at an apartment building at 4175 Lawrence Ave. in West Hill on Sunday

Toronto set an ugly new record of 90 murders Sunday with the death of a shooting victim in Scarborough.

The city has now officially had more murders in this year than in any other. The previous record of 89 killings was set in 1991.

The new record of 90 has been reached with six weeks left in 2018.

Police were called to 4175 Lawrence Ave. near Kingston Rd. area following reports of gunshots Sunday afternoon at 1.30 p.m. They found a man in his 30s without vital signs who was later pronounced dead.

Shortly after, members of the Toronto police Emergency Task Force arrived at the Toronto community housing apartment complex and performed a floor-by-floor search.

A man in handcuffs was led to a waiting cruiser and driven away, but police wouldn’t elaborate on the circumstances of his custody.

Residents of the building told the Sun they recognized the man being led away by police.

They said crime — including involvement in the city’s organized drug trade — is commonplace in the building.

In response to Sunday’s shooting, Mayor John Tory said Toronto’s grim new record isn’t something he can accept.

“We are working well with the Ontario Government to give our police more support and toughen up bail practices,” the statement read.

“And we are working well with the Government of Canada to toughen up our gun laws and to invest in kids and families.”
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8 St. Michael's College students expelled, 1 suspended over alleged sex assaults

St. Michael’s College School expelled eight students and suspended another in the wake of two incidents, one allegedly involving sexual assault.

The prestigious private school told parents Friday in an email that it had received video of an incident from the boys’ washroom on Monday. That night it received a second video from an incident in the locker room.

On Friday there were allegations of a third incident and the school now says it notified Toronto Police on Wednesday after finishing an internal investigation.

St. Michael’s initially claimed to have told police about the incidents on Monday, a statement police disputed, saying they first heard about it from the media Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Basilion Fathers who operate St. Michael’s College School say they are “saddened” by the recent alleged group sexual assault on a student.

“St. Michael’s College School in Toronto is the first foundation of the Basilian Fathers in North America,” said a statement sent to the Toronto Sun by spokesman Father Thomas Rosica. “We are deeply saddened and troubled by the events that have come to light over the past days.”

At a time when the controversy has been covered nationwide, the school has a heightened police presence to deal with security threats.

“Our primary concern in all of this situation is the protection of students, young people and vulnerable persons,” the statement said.

Police have assigned officers from their child and youth unit to investigate.

“We are working closely with the school officials and police authorities to establish a timeline of the events of this very sad situation,” Rosica’s statement said. “The school will issue statements when all information has been gathered.”

The school held two damage control meetings Friday for parents, who showed much disdain for the media as they left.

“You guys (media) are getting ripped apart in there,” one man said as he left.”

Another woman said, “it’s really hard to heal while you guys won’t stop looking at us.”

Many parents ignored the media presence as they left, but one woman approached shouting.

“Don’t you realize what you are doing to our kids,” the woman screamed, adding with thousands of kids at the school there will always be one bad apple.

Students have been told not to speak to the media, but one Grade 9 student did.

“Everyone has a low morale. There is anger and disgust at what has happened,” the boy said. “If you do a Google review of the school everything is directed at the incidents and that isn’t who we are as a student body.”

NDP MPP Jill Andrew for Toronto St. Paul’s said outside the school that she is shocked and her heart goes out to the victims.

The former teacher and youth worker openly asked, “Why would something like this happen?”

“The message we need to put out to youth and the community is more education around sexual assault and consent,” Andrew said. “We don’t want this to happen again.”
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Toronto Pro-lifer assaulted in viral video speaks out after CBC declined interview

David Menzies of The Rebel.Media reports: Outside a Toronto courthouse, I spoke to Marie Claire Bissonnette, the pro-life activist who was allegedly assaulted by Jordan Hunt during a peaceful protest against abortion on a Toronto street corner, in a video that went viral around the world. (Note that this matter is still before the courts and the accused, Jordan Hunt, has not been sentenced.) MORE: https://www.therebel.media/exclusive-...
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Four sought for frightening Vaughan bank heist

The hunt is on for four bandits after an armed bank robbery in Vaughan.

York Regional Police say the frightening heist occurred at a bank on Major Mackenzie Dr. W., just west of Hwy. 400, shortly after 1 p.m. on Tuesday.

And investigators from the Holdup Unit are now hoping the public can help identify the crooks.

“Three to four (men) armed with guns entered the bank wearing black hoodies and ordered everyone down onto the ground,” Const. Laura Nicolle said Thursday.

The crooks obtained an undisclosed amount of cash and fled the bank.

“No one was physically injured during the incident,” Nicolle said. “The investigation is ongoing.”

No images or descriptions of the suspects have been released.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Holdup Unit at 1-866-876-5423, ext. 6631, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).

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Alleged sex assault in Toronto at prestigious St. Michael's College investigated

Legendary St. Michael’s College School has been rocked to its core amidst an alleged sexual assault scandal now under investigation by Toronto Police.

The alleged assaults in two hazing incidents, a video of the alleged incidents being labelled as child pornography, questions on when police were notified, and students being expelled had the Catholic school reaching out to parents to apologize while expressing a guarantee such actions fall beneath the highly regarded educational institution’s moral standards.

“At St. Michael’s College School, nothing matters more than the safety and well-being of our students,” the school said in a statement Wednesday. “Teaching our students goodness, discipline and knowledge in an environment where respect for others is paramount is a responsibility we take very seriously.

“This week, to our shock and dismay, we learned of two incidents that were in clear violation of our Student Code of Conduct. The school has zero tolerance for such behaviour.”

It is being described by sources as an alleged hazing incident involving the school’s football team.

“The school administration promptly conducted an internal investigation, including meeting individually with the students involved and their parents,” said the release. “As a result, swift and decisive disciplinary action has taken place, including expulsions.”

Sources say up to ten students may have been kicked out of the Grades 7-12 school, which is noted for scores of esteemed alumni including legendary Toronto Maple Leafs and parliamentarians Frank Mahovlich and Red Kelly.

“We are deeply sorry that these incidents occurred. From this unfortunate situation, we redouble our efforts to educate and promote respect for others in the school and in the community,” the school said.

Toronto Police spokesman Meaghan Gray said “police were not aware of the alleged incidents until the media called with questions about it today (Wednesday).”

The acting director of corporate communications said “we had no information on it” and immediately called 13 Division to see if they did.

“The school said they notified the police on Monday,” she said, adding that has not been verified.

Gray said from the information she has at this point “we became aware of this incident today.” Toronto Police’s Child and Youth Advocacy Centre and 13 Division detectives have started a “full scale investigation” into it.

“Regardless of who was notified and when we have the information, we have video and there is an active investigation going on,” said Gray, who added any children in need of medical assistance will be provided it.

Toronto Police also warned against broadcasting or sharing the video of the alleged hazing.

“Police believe a video depicting the alleged assault is being circulated” and “investigators from the Child Exploitation Section have been consulted and have determined the video meets the definition of child pornography,” Toronto Police said in a release.

“Anyone who has this video is in possession of child pornography. The video must be deleted immediately and cannot be shared with anyone.”
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Yohannes Brhanu, 22 was a 'Neptune Four' teen who alleged police misconduct

His youth was shattered by a police gun. And now his life has been cut short by a thug’s.

Yohannes Brhanu, 22, was this year’s record-tying homicide #89, killed in a midnight gun battle waged on a quiet residential street this week, yet another casualty of the gun violence that has plagued our city this year.

But he was supposed to have escaped it.

Brhanu was one of the infamous Neptune Four, black teens from Lawrence Heights who were stopped by Toronto Police on their way to an after-school program in November 2011. The police were looking for robbery suspects and demanded identification.

When one of the boys tried to walk away after learning they weren’t under arrest, he alleged he was beaten while his twin brother and their two friends were told at gunpoint: “Don’t move or I’ll f—–g kill you.”

The four boys were arrested but all charges were dropped after a Toronto Housing security video surfaced showing the police encounter.

Const. Adam Lourenco and Const. Scharnil Pais were later charged under the Police Services Act: Pais faces one count of unlawful arrest while Lourenco is charged with unlawful arrest as well as two counts of using unreasonable force for allegedly punching the teen and pointing his gun at Brhanu and the others.

Both officers pleaded not guilty in 2017 — and unbelievably, their disciplinary hearing is still ongoing with another date set for next week. The four teens also launched a civil suit against them in 2013.

Roderick Brereton had known Brhanu since 2011 when his Urban Rez Solutions ran a mentoring program in the Neptune housing project. “He was an individual who was bright, very witty, full of life and had tonnes of potential.

“He wanted to get into construction and we helped him get into a pre-apprenticeship program. I hadn’t talked to him in the last couple of months but he was working in construction and seemed to be doing pretty well.”

And so the community consultant was shocked when he learned not only that Brhanu had been killed in a gun fight but that a loaded, unused firearm was found in his vehicle.

“I was utterly surprised,” said the shaken Brereton, 47. “I didn’t know him to be involved in any of this activity. To be honest, nobody knows what happened. I don’t know if he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The police said they found a gun. I don’t know if it was his.”

His mother and siblings are equally stunned and none of it fits with the young man he thought he knew.

“There was no indication this would be in his deck of cards,” he said. “I’ve been trying to wrap my head around what the message is. There’s still shock that this young person is gone. I’m still trying to process it.”

Brhanu had testified last year at the police tribunal against the two officers who stopped him and his friends when he was 15.

“I think it had a huge adverse impact on his psyche,” Brereton said. “There was a loss of trust, there was paranoia. The police are supposed to be there to serve and protect …they ran into some bad apples that day.”

The three surviving Neptune Four are all doing well, he said, attending university and starting businesses. They’re equally mystified by what’s befallen Brhanu, he said. “They grew up together. They’re a close-knit family. They’re very traumatized by what happened.”

Brereton is still waiting for more information before accepting that the teen he mentored was involved in gang activity. He insists the rest of us should wait as well.

And if turns out to be true? “Everybody’s accountable for their choices,” he sighed. “I couldn’t say what has gone wrong. Sometimes people fall off the path.”
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Toronto's new homeless warehouse opens at Queen Elizabeth Building

It was billed as an advance tour of the latest 24-hour respite care shelter to open in Toronto.

Scheduled to open Thursday night in the Queen Elizabeth Building at Exhibition Place, it looked awfully much to me like a warehouse for 200 poor souls — a perfect example of what is known as three hots (hot meals, plus snacks) and a cot.

Under sharp fluorescent lighting, the cots were lined up on top of each other like an army dorm — with blue tape outlining men’s cots and pink for women’s. The cots are barely high enough to store the most minimal of worldly possessions underneath.

There is an additional storage room at one end of the room but it doesn’t look to be secure.

There will, however, be at least five security guards and between five and seven support workers on at all times, not that I expect they will be watching client possessions.

Since the shelter allows pets, there were 20 crates lined up against the side of the room containing nothing more than a hard looking black tray, no little blanket, nothing. (I suppose that’s better than the sidewalk).

SHARPS containers to deposit needles are contained in key locations throughout — clearly indicating that taking one’s drugs in the respite shelter is fine by City Hall.

The “dining area” — where catered meals will be served — consisted of a series of portable tables set up at one end of the large room.

This cramped warehouse facility will be provided at a cost of $105 per client per night by Homes First.

“This is not what we’d like to be doing,” said Patricia Mueller, CEO of Homes First, which also runs the respite centre at 354 George St.

“We’d rather be running more housing.”

Mueller says the people who have turned up at their other shelters primarily have addiction or mental health issues — but some have just genuinely lost their housing.

She said the problem is that there has been a “perfect storm” — many contributing factors causing homelessness in the city.

The influx of refugees is part of the issue, she adds, but there’s people losing their housing because of rising rents, addictions, the opioid crisis or hoarding issues or because landlords are converting units into Airbnbs.

“They’re so many things causing this and right now we want to make sure no one dies on the streets,” she said, noting when asked that cots are “within city standards” for how apart they should be.

“It’s definitely within health standards … it’s not how I’d like people to live,” Mueller admitted. “I want people to get housed.”

She said they will have a worker on hand to try to get people into permanent housing but there’s a relative dearth of “deeply affordable” and “supportive” housing units.

I asked her about the 1,200 rent-geared-to-income units at Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) currently sitting vacant — most of them bachelors and one-bedrooms.

“I would be happy to take those units on, clean them and get them repaired,” she said.
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Toronto is loading more costs on to new development, costing consumers

I’m sure that as you sip on your Saturday morning coffee and flip through the paper or your phone, looking at new home ads, that you had no idea the City of Toronto increased development charges by $20,000 on a new single family home.

From the $41,251 fee set this past May 1, development charges for a single family home increased to $60,739 this past Nov. 1. That charge will increase to $71,432 on Nov. 1, 2019 and then to $80,227 on Nov. 1, 2020, adding $38,976 to the cost of a new home in just three years.

So, what are development charges? They are a tax imposed by local municipalities on new homebuyers, as well as GO Transit and education boards. They contribute to the capital costs of municipal services such as roads, water services, sewers, parks and recreation and emergency services. The building and land development industry supports the need for new homebuyers to pay their fair share of these costs.

New homebuyers pay their fair share for infrastructure and services, but municipalities like the City of Toronto are loading excessive costs on to new development. The bottom line is that these costs are pricing new homebuyers out of the market. Development charges have increased exponentially and it has shifted the burden of paying for critical infrastructure onto the newest residents and businesses moving into a neighbourhood.

This past May, BILD commissioned a study by Altus Group that calculated all government fees and charges on a new single family home in six municipalities across the GTA. The study found that, on average, all government fees, taxes and charges amounted for 22 per cent of the cost of a new home. The biggest contributor was development charges, which accounted for 30 per cent of all charges.

Since 2004, development charges have increased between 236 and 878 per cent across the GTA. Once the City of Toronto finishes the phase-in of its latest round of increases in 2020, the increase over 2004 levels will be a whopping 1,700 per cent. To provide a comparison over that same time frame, the Consumer Price Index (CPI – Inflation) rose by 22 per cent and the average new house price in Toronto increased by 143 per cent.

Development charges are increasing 10 to 40 times faster than inflation over the same period. Existing City of Toronto homeowners faced a property tax increase of 30 per cent per household during that same period.

When we talk about affordability of new housing, we must ensure that development charges do not become a barrier to new home ownership.
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Federal government orders Canada Post to permanently cease delivery of Your Ward News

Federal LIEberals tells us what we should and should not read 
 
The federal government has ordered Canada Post to permanently cease delivering a controversial Toronto-based tabloid that has been criticized for promoting hatred against Jews, visible minorities, women and LGBTQ Canadians.

In June 2016, the government issued an interim order to stop delivery of Your Ward News to some 300,000 households through Canada Post’s unaddressed bulk mail.

After considering the recommendations of an independent board of review on the matter, Carla Qualtrough, the minister responsible for the post office, has now made that order final. The public services and procurement minister says her decision is consistent with the law and the government’s support for diversity and inclusiveness.

Last fall, the tabloid’s publisher, LeRoy St. Germaine, and editor-in-chief, James Sears, were each charged with two counts of wilful promotion of hatred against an identifiable group, namely Jews and women.

They were also both charged with uttering death threats against political consultants Warren and Lisa Kinsella, but a judge last month dismissed the charge against St. Germaine.

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, which had filed a criminal complaint about the tabloid, applauded Qualtrough’s decision Thursday to permanently ensure Your Ward News is not disseminated through Canada Post.

“Your Ward News promotes disgusting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, misogyny, homophobia and racism,” Noah Shack, the centre’s vice-president for Toronto, said in a statement.

“Our taxpayer-funded mail service should not be used to distribute such hateful content to hundreds of thousands of households.”

Until the interim prohibition on delivery, the tabloid had been landing unsolicited every month on the doorsteps of about 300,000 households and businesses in the Greater Toronto Area.

“Just think about a Holocaust survivor picking up their mail only to find neo-Nazi propaganda on their doorstep,” said Shack. “This is totally unacceptable.”
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Toronto Hood Life

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Toronto Shooting near Albion and Weston is #89 and Ties City Record Homicides

A man is dead after a shooting near Albion and Weston Rds., the city’s record-tying 89th homicide of the year.

Toronto Police say up to 10 shots were reported on Ann Arbour Rd. just before midnight Tuesday.

Officers found a male victim without vital signs in a vehicle. He was taken to a trauma centre, where he died.

There was no immediate information on any suspects or the victim’s identity.

The murder ties the city’s record for homicides, which was set in 1991.

“You are always shocked when you get news like this,” said Supt. Ron Taverner, who heads up 23, 12 and 31 Divisions. “Every murder is shocking.”

Speaking from the murder scene, he said he was hoping to not get that call, “but when it came, it is upsetting. This is another young person lost.”

Last week, Taverner told media that the northwest corner of Toronto has had about 40% of the city’s shootings. It’s not lost on him that it was inevitable another one would likely come.

But he was hoping it could be avoided. “We have been taking a lot of guns off the street,” he said.

“What we don’t know is how many homicides we prevent because of the actions we take to take guns off the street.”

He credited paramedics for keeping the homicide number from being much higher and his officers for “working so hard to try to keep the community safe.”

When you have 89 murders, tying the mark set in 1991, it’s a sombre day, he said.

“The problem is there are so many guns out there.”

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Toronto nixes possible Toronto Plaza Hotel purchase near Jane and Wilson Aves

The city has dismissed speculation that it is buying a North York hotel to house refugees.

Toronto had looked into buying the 199-room Toronto Plaza Hotel, at Hwys. 400 and 401, to determine if that was a cheaper way to shelter refugees than building something new.

The city decided against spending millions on the purchase because the hotel and its seven acres of land is on a flood plain with limited development potential.

“Earlier this year, the city’s real estate division conducted due diligence to determine if there was a business case to purchase the land,” said a city release.

“As it was a large site, it would have been for broader city needs, not solely shelter, support and housing. It has now been determined that this wouldn’t be possible and the purchase is not being pursued.”

Virk Hospitality, which owns the hotel, declined comment.

The Toronto Plaza is currently used to house refugees and homeless families at the city’s expense. The CBC reported that the hotel has a market value of $35 million and the city has spent more that $4 million to shelter people at the location.

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Toronto Star publishes very biased article about Moms and Gun Control

A gun control group is hoping a new 13-foot-tall bullet-shaped exclamation point outside Toronto’s city hall will lend a sense of urgency to the debate about gun violence in Canada.

In the wake of increasing gun violence in Toronto and Canada as a whole, the Coalition for Gun Control launched a national campaign Tuesday morning urging Ottawa to ban handguns and military-style assault weapons.

Stacey King, whose two children were shot this summer in a Toronto playground, said the time for platitudes has passed.

“Thankfully they survived, but our lives have been changed forever,” she said. “Mothers of children that have been shot do not want prayers or flowers. We want gun control.”

The campaign consists of billboards and a social media campaign directing people to the website triggerchange.ca. The site links to a government petition calling for the weapon ban — more than 600 people had signed as of noon Tuesday — and urges Canadians to contact their member of parliament.

The exclamation point sculpture was briefly placed next to the Toronto sign at city hall Tuesday morning.

“I’ve been doing this for almost 30 years,” said coalition president Wendy Cukier, who started advocating for gun control after the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre. “And personally, I feel like in the last decade we’ve been moving backward, not forward.”

Gun homicides are up sharply this year in Toronto — 45 so far this year, up from 35 by this date in 2017 — and the city is two killings away from breaking its record for homicides in a single year, set in 1991. The city councils of Toronto and Montreal have urged the federal government to ban handguns in their cities.

“We have all the evidence, we have all the data, we have all the experts, who have argued very clearly that stronger controls on guns reduce the risk that people will be injured and die — not just in the big cities, but right across the country,” Cukier said.

Cukier said she is worried Canada is approaching a “tipping point” where gun ownership is too saturated to be rolled back. She gave the example of the United States, where public opinion is generally for stricter gun control, but meaningful action is slow-moving.

In 2005 there were about 300,000 legally-owned handguns in Canada, she said. “Now there are almost a million, and if we wait longer, there will be two million,” she said.

An Ekos poll last December found 69 per cent of Canadians support strict gun bans in urban areas.

“There’s a real disconnect between public opinion on this issue, and political action,” Cukier said.

The campaign is taking aim at handguns and assault weapons, but not rifles to be used for hunting.

“You don’t use a handgun to shoot deer, and you can’t hunt partridge with an AR-15 — these are guns designed to kill people,” said campaign activist Meagan Trush, who grew up in an area outside Thunder Bay where many people, including most of her family, often go hunting on weekends.

King’s daughters, 5 and 9, were shot on June 14 while playing at a Scarborough playground. Her younger daughter was shot in the stomach; her older was shot in the ankle.

Both underwent emergency surgery.

Trush said she’s hopeful about the campaign’s potential to talk about gun control with youth.

“I’m tremendously proud of all the hard work that’s gone into it,” she said. “I think it’s a really important opportunity to engage younger demographics, millennials like myself in the issue that has traditionally been a narrative dominated by those of our parents’ generation.”

For the veteran Cukier, it’s more difficult to muster optimism about an issue she’s been protesting for nearly three decades.

“On the one hand, I’m grateful and happy that so many people have stepped up to help move this forward. On the other hand, every time there’s a shooting, I am furious that people who could’ve taken action did not take action,” Cukier said.

“To me, it’s now come down to, what do we value — our assault weapons and handguns, or our children’s lives?” she said. “For me, that choice is really clear.”

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Toronto Police shocked by disturbing shooting video

It might be the grossest, most disturbing crime video ever captured in Toronto history.

It has angered Toronto Police and shocked a community.

As you see on torontosun.com, all three gunman stood over a man they had already shot and each unloaded their hand guns into him again.

“He was hit with eight bullets and is still recovering in hospital,” said 23 Division Supt. Ron Taverner. “He was an innocent man who had never before had dealings with police.”

It didn’t stop these murderous creeps.

“If not for the amazing EMS paramedics this, and many others, would have been a Homicide no question,” said Taverner.

It’s a disturbing video to watch.

It was not a movie. It happened right here in Toronto.

It was June 10 on Driftwood Avenue.

Taverner did the city and province a real service by showing this video and two others of ugly shootings because it puts out there what these shootings look like.

It’s frightening. It’s reality.

The video evidence does not just show shocking shootings of innocent people but also demonstrates the pure cruelty some gangland style thugs employ.

“It’s senseless violence against a community that is 99 per cent very good people,“ said Supt. Ron Taverner of 23 Division. “These shooters have no regard for human life. I can’t use the word I would like to use to describe them.”

The veteran officer says enough is enough.

“Innocent people get caught up in this and it’s pathetic,” he said. “People barbecuing or having a coffee. It has just got to stop.”

He wants it to stop.

He knows the only way to make these gunmen stop is to find the gutless shooters, arrest them, convict them, incarcerate them and then fight to keep them locked up.

“But we need help,” he said. “If people know who these people are in these videos please contact Crimestoppers.”

Taverner knows, as does everybody else who fight crime, many of these slugs are out on bail faster than the next shipment of illegal guns come across the border and back into their hands.

“But a new approach at the province level is seeing special crowns going to court on gun offences and contesting bail,” he said. “We are hopeful that will keep these dangerous people behind bars. ”

First, in these three cases, police have got to catch them.

Police are trying hard.

Just this week Toronto Police Deputy Chief James Ramer and Acting Inspector Don Belanger displayed to the media a cache of 30 illegal handguns and drugs and cash they kept out the hands of criminals in Project Belair.

Thursday Toronto Police announced the arrests of two men in the Kipling Avenue and Dixon Road area of 31 Division and seized a loaded 9mm Taurus G2C firearm in the process.

Brothers Abdiaziz Mohamed Abdi, 24, Ibrahim Mohamed Abdi, 29, of Toronto, are charged with a truckload of offences.

Taverner displayed a photograph of five loaded, illegal handguns the 23 Division Gun Suppression Unit has recently seized.

But the three videos he show provide a glimpse into the reality of how vicious these people in the gang world can be.

The first incident near Jane Street and Steeles Ave. shows three masked suspects rob at gunpoint several victims getting out of their cars, before one of them struck a victim when a gunshot went off.

Then all three shooters “approached the victim, stood over top of him and discharged multiple rounds from three separate firearms striking the victim numerous times.”

It’s evil.

The next one was Aug. 30 near John Garland Boulevard and Martingrove Road. People were barbecuing in front of a residence when two gunmen approached victims and then “immediately began firing at the group.”

The victim was wounded and is recovering. But the shooters are still on the loose.

In each case innocent people are wounded — just because they happened to be there.

“We have no evidence to show they are anything other than random so we need people to assist investigators,” said Taverner.

These gunmen make look like tough guy gangsters from the movies but when you see the videos what we now see is they are nothing but gutless cowards who are stalking and shooting innocent people who are not armed and hurting no one.

Taverner was visibility upset when showing the videos.

“I am pissed off. No one should have to live like this,” he said.

He is right, but in Toronto many live fearing being shot for no reason.

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