Gunfire erupted on a busy Toronto street filled with holiday shoppers, killing a young woman and wounding six others, police said -- the latest in a record surge in gun violence in the city this year.
Two suspects were arrested and at least one firearm was seized shortly after the shootings, which occurred on Monday afternoon near the popular Eaton Center shopping mall.
The busy downtown area, popular with tourists, was also the site of two other shootings this year. There have been 78 murders in Toronto this year, including a record 52 gun-related deaths -- twice as many as last year.
The gunfire appeared to stem from a dispute between two young men and the woman killed was a teenage bystander who was out with one of her parents, Toronto police Chief Bill Blair said.
"I'm tremendously angry," Blair said. "The individuals who would be involved in such violence clearly don't care about themselves, they don't care about their fellow citizens, they don't care about the safety of the people of the city."
"There is no rational explanation for such behavior. It is so outrageous, so callous, totally disregarding of the lives and safety of other people in this city."
Authorities did not give the name or age of the female victim. The two suspects were arrested at a subway station.
An off-duty police officer, who was shot in the leg, was among those wounded. Police said it appears he was hit after a bullet ricocheted.
Officials said the six wounded were hospitalized.
Emergency vehicles crowded around the scene on Yonge Street, which was cordoned off with yellow police tape.
"Someone said they were shot and everyone went to the back of the store," said Magnolia Sandoval, an employee at a camera store.
Mayor David Miller called the shooting "a brazen act of senseless violence."
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion