Toronto police eye tow truck turf war in latest shooting

A man was wounded when his moving tow truck was strafed by gunfire in North York Wednesday night.

But Toronto Police are not yet able to say the shooting is tied to the ongoing turf war within the towing industry that has seen gun violence erupt repeatedly and numerous vehicles set ablaze in the GTA over the last 14 months.

“It’s far too early for me to say if there’s any link to any other shootings that have occurred. But obviously, this is going to be something that our investigators will be looking at very closely to determine if there is a link,” Insp. Jim Gotell told reporters late Wednesday at the scene of the shooting.

Police were called around 7:20 p.m. after the victim — who was driving on Leslie St. just north of Hwy. 401 when the driver’s side of his tow truck was sprayed with bullets — walked into nearby North York General Hospital.

Const. Jenifferjit Sidhu confirmed Thursday the injuries were not life-threatening.

No arrests have been made, but the investigation is ongoing and cops have seized security video from area cameras.

Industry insiders believe an influx of tow truck drivers vying for work in the fiercely competitive, largely unregulated towing business is behind the ongoing turf war.

Since January 2019, at least 10 tow trucks have been torched and five people with ties to the towing industry have been shot — two of them fatally — in and around the GTA.

In June 2019, Toronto cops made reference to the ongoing conflict while announcing 73 arrests and the seizure of nearly two dozen firearms in Project Kraken — an operation that targeted members of a Scarborough street gang.

The accused in that probe included seven tow truck drivers, some allegedly nabbed with guns.

And the violence, which extends far beyond the borders of the city, has continued to escalate.

TOW TRUCK TURF WAR FALLOUT
JAN. 12, 2019:Lingathasan Suntharamoorthy, 36, who had ties to a tow company, was shot dead in his Scarborough apartment.

APRIL 28, 2019: Tow truck driver Lawrence Taylor Gannon, 28, was shot dead in the driveway of his Scarborough home.

DEC. 8, 2019: A gunman opened fire on two tow truck drivers in a parking lot near Hwy. 404 and Major Mackenzie Blvd.

DEC. 17, 2019: Three tow trucks were torched in separate locations in Hamilton.

DEC. 22, 2019: Five tow trucks were set on fire; three in North York and two in Richmond Hill.

JAN. 9, 2020: Durham cops revealed 250 charges were laid during Project Bondar against tow company owners and drivers, and they recovered 31 vehicles that were either unlawfully towed or stolen.

JAN. 26, 2020: A tow truck was set ablaze in the driveway of an Aurora home.

FEB. 1, 2020: Gunmen opened fire on a tow truck that was stopped near Steeles Ave. E. and Hwy. 404, injuring the man behind the wheel and narrowly missing his female passenger.

FEB. 16, 2020: Two towing company employees — a man, 30, and a boy, 17 — were wounded when a masked gunman opened fire on them in the parking lot of the Promenade Mall in Thornhill.

FEB. 21, 2020: A tow truck was torched in the driveway of a Pickering home.

Please share this