Police are investigating an incident where two young girls were shot at a playground in Scarborough, Ont., on June 15, 2018.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
Toronto Mayor John Tory says the city’s police force is taking aggressive action to catch the “despicable human being” who shot up an east-end playground on Thursday and left two young children with bullet wounds from the crossfire.
“Those who would fire into a playground full of kids playing with so little care don’t deserve to be among us here in the society that we’re building in Toronto and elsewhere in our country,” Mr. Tory told reporters at a Friday morning press conference where he faced questions over whether the police reforms he has championed had left the force short-staffed in the face of rising gun crime.
The two victims, sisters aged 5 and 9, were playing around 5 p.m. on Thursday in a group of 11 children in a park in the Alton Towers area of Scarborough, near Steeles Avenue East and McCowan Road, when shots rang out. An unknown man, believed to be the target of the attack, was also there, but fled. The children were rushed to Sick Children’s Hospital, where the pair underwent surgery for what police said were non-life-threatening injuries.
Investigators are searching for a “vehicle of interest,” and released photos of a black, four-door Nissan Versa sedan caught on camera near the scene of the shooting.
On Friday, Mr. Tory repeatedly stated that Toronto remained the safest big city in North America, despite the recent rise in shootings. But he was forced to defend himself from criticism from Mike McCormack, head of the Toronto Police Association, who has claimed the police modernization process endorsed by the mayor and Chief Mark Saunders has resulted in a shortage of officers and rendered the streets unsafe.
On Twitter just hours after the attack, Mr. McCormack called the shooting “horrific,” referenced other recent incidents – including a shootout in Scarborough that saw an officer injured – and asked: “Is this Mayor Tory’s vision of a safe city? Gun crime up 18%, a police officer recently shot, random shootings in public places. Time to show some leadership.” Mr. McCormack could not be reached Friday.
It was clear the mayor did not like Mr. McCormack’s tweet: “I find it very regrettable the almost obscene haste with which he moved to politicize this issue.”
Mr. Tory countered that the police union for years has resisted changes to its shift structure that would allow more police to be deployed where and when they are most needed in the city. He also pointed to the hiring of 200 more officers to be completed by the end of the year – a move that lifted what was initially a hiring freeze.
Some who live in the Alton Towers neighbourhood say it is a tight-knit community, and, despite the brazen shooting, still safe.
“It’s not a bad neighbourhood. I grew up here,” said Garthi Yoga, a 25-year-old who has spent nearly her entire life in the Alton Towers neighbourhood. But she said her 11-year-old sister was shaken by word of the shooting.
“I’m worried for all the kids here,” Ms. Yoga said. “So hopefully it gets safer. It was safe for so long.”
Kevin Donovan, whose daughter also attends a school in the area, said the shooting hasn’t changed how he views the neighbourhood, and he won’t be taking any extra precautions.
“That people would be so reckless and brazen around children playing in a park is what shocked me more than anything,” he said. “I guess it shows you that it can happen anywhere.”
Ontario Premier-designate Doug Ford called the attack heartbreaking, but said millions were being spent on fighting gangs and the spread of guns in Toronto and Ottawa.
“These innocent two little kids being shot in the streets of Toronto, what’s this city coming to?” Mr. Ford told reporters. He said his government would give the police “all the resources” that they need: “This can’t happen again, ever, ever.”
Irvin Waller, a criminology professor at the University of Ottawa, said the city should be doing more to proactively tackle gun violence.
He said Toronto needs a dedicated office to gather better data on gun violence, and should put special outreach workers in hospitals to speak with the victims of gun violence who are at risk of retaliating. He also advocates “call-ins,” where police invite suspected criminal gun owners to a neutral place not to arrest them, but to offer a way out that can include access to job training or social programs.
While he doesn’t disagree with police plans to hire more officers and deploy more of them in crime hot spots, Mr. Waller said it is not the answer on its own to gun violence: “What seems to be happening in Toronto, Ottawa, Thunder Bay, you name it, is you get a spike [in violence] and they hire some more cops. And the spike may go away, but just hiring more cops is not a solution.”
With a report from Justin Giovannetti at Queen’s Park