Video captures shooting outside East York,Toronto house party

Pop, pop, pop … pop.

I counted seven gun shots: Three in unison; three more bursts; and a final blast.

Surveillance video shows the flashes from most of them.

The shooting happened Friday night at 10:30 p.m. on Alder Rd. in East York and if the alarming incident hadn’t been caught on a neighbour’s surveillance camera, we would never have even heard about it as no one was murdered.

That no one died is a miracle.

“There were 75 kids at a house party so this could have turned out very badly,” said Justin Van Dette, a spokesman for the Parkview Hill Community Association who is also being encouraged to run for city council. “What happened here was very disturbing.”

He’s right, of course.

Given this is Toronto’s year of death, a shooting happening in a place where there are innocent people is hardly surprising. If you watch this video and don’t get chills up and down your spine, you have become desensitized to the obscene violence.

But who could blame someone for becoming used to it?

There are shootings every day. In this case, you can hear the frantic horror of potential victims scurrying away. You can see the gunman calmly walk toward whoever he was shooting at before retreating and fleeing. In the video, you also see the shooter and acquaintances arrive and accost the boyfriend of a young woman who can be heard screaming: “Are you f—— stupid? You are going to come to my party? Are you dumb?”

Witnesses say the man was robbed, as well.  There is also a getaway car speeding off.

“It’s really hard to look at,” said Van Dette. “This should not be happening in our city — ever.”

But there it was in residential East York. A man was hit in the hand by one of the seven shots.

Many of the fleeing teenagers headed straight for a TTC bus and escaped from the area. I mention teenagers because earlier that same evening on Sept. 14, Toronto recorded its 77th homicide when a 16-year-old was gunned down at about 6:45 p.m. nearby at Bellamy Rd. N. and Cedar Brae Blvd.

Two people wearing hoodies were seen fleeing the area.

Are they related?

I can’t can even identify the murdered teen since police have not released a name. Homicide 77 is a mystery kid. It’s difficult to humanize a number. Toronto’s 78th homicide happened in Scarborough early Wednesday. A 19-year-old man, Jago Anderson, was shot dead behind a plaza. Late Wednesday, another man was fatally stabbed in North York.

The first mayoral debate is about arts and culture so don’t count on any talk about the mess the city has become anytime soon.

We will just wait for the next gun call.

Thanks to digital communications, the media can’t even monitor the police radios anymore so we can only react when they put out something on Twitter. A lot of violent crime is not being covered because Toronto Police don’t put out major daily crime reports anymore.

So, we rely on a surveillance cameras like this one to capture major crimes in action so that you can see the repugnant reality of what is going on in our city and in the rest of the GTA, too.

With Toronto’s 79 murders, Peel’s 20, Durham’s eight, York’s eight and Halton’s single killing so far in 2018, the GTA has recorded 115 homicides –11 more than the 104 from all of 2017. If you watch this video, it doesn’t take much to imagine how this could have easily been seven more murders.

It’s pathetic that governments have hampered the efforts of police but we warned them what would happen if they took away carding and TAVIS-type programs. It’s happening. Every day. Every night. On a street you know.

It’s unacceptable and there will come a point when the public cries ‘Enough is enough.’ That day has not yet come.

Until it does, sleep well. And keep your camera on.

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