RCMP cordon off a crime scene using police tapeJOHN LEHMANN
Toronto's homicide total for 2013 rose to 20 Thursday night – six more than at the same time last year, but one less than on the same date in 2011 – after two unrelated shooting and stabbing deaths in different parts of the city.
The names of the victims were not immediately released and no arrests have been made.
At around 8:30 p.m., a 20-year-old man was shot and killed at the Grace Hartman public housing complex on Forest Creek Pathway near Old Finch and Morningside Avenues in Scarborough.
Police said witnesses reported hearing two bursts of gunfire and that three or four suspects fled the crime scene.
The gunman is believed to be a male black in his 20s of medium height wearing dark clothing, Constable Wendy Drummond said.
Half an hour later, police and paramedics were called to an apartment building at 325 Bogert Ave., near Yonge Street and Sheppard Avenue West in North York.
The initial call was in response to a home invasion, Constable Drummond said.
A 28-year-old man who had been stabbed multiple times was rushed to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Police said two men – one with a handgun, the other with a knife – entered the apartment and demanded cash and drugs. The intruder with the knife confronted the victim as he was getting out of the shower and stabbed him several times.
Homicide detectives were examining security-camera footage in efforts to identify the assailants.
In other overnight violence, a man was shot in the hand in the northwest part of the city, near Jane Street and Queens Drive.
Police are still looking for that gunman.