But unlike the first two incidents where nobody was hurt, the latest shooting killed Peggy Ann Smith, a 61-year-old grandmother.
“It’s just horribly sad,” said long-time area resident Susan Bryant. “It just feels like my neighbourhood is ruined.”
After leaving a bouquet flowers at the back porch of a townhouse on Munro St., Bryant said Sunday that Smith was her friend’s mother.
Bryant said her friend told her that she and Smith arrived home when gunshots rang out just after 6 p.m. on Don Mount Ct. — a laneway behind the row of government housing units, near Dundas St. W. and Broadview Ave.
“They started running and the mother didn’t make it,” Bryant said, fighting back tears.
One area resident, who asked not to be named, said he heard what sounded like two guns firing upwards of eight shots.
He rushed over to the neighbouring laneway and saw two extremely distraught women with the lifeless victim, who was bleeding from a head wound.
Dozens of people, who seemed to know each other, quickly gathered around the victim, the man said.
The back porches of two townhouses were riddled with bullet holes. But Toronto Police Det.-Sgt. Hank Idsinga said he finds it hard to imagine the grandmother was the intended target.
Area residents said the laneway is often teeming with people sitting in lawn chairs behind their homes.
Idsinga said there was a birthday party for a young teenager not far from where the shooting unfolded and also a barbecue at a nearby townhouse.
“Needless to say, with the number of people out and about in the area on a warm summer night, there was a strong possibility of further injuries or fatalities,” he said.
A townhouse a few doors away from where Smith was killed was shot up on May 5. Another home just south of the murder scene was hit by gunfire on April 20.
The spate of shooting has left some area residents frightened and hoping police will take action to get the guns out of their community.
“It makes me wonder if I’m safe,” Bryant said. “Is it random? Who were they trying to get? I won’t those people caught.”
No arrests have been made.
But one woman, who asked not to be named, believes she saw the killers fleeing.
“There were three of them,” she said. “I could see at least one of them had a gun in his hand.”
She said one man ran between two homes, hopped on a motorcycle and took off along Dundas St. E. The other two men jumped into an SUV and drove away, the woman said.
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