Victims in Toronto festival shooting ‘targeted’: Police

TORONTO - The two people killed in a weekend shooting at a Toronto festival were targeted, police said on July 13, as the city’s mayor pledged action on illegal guns brought over from the United States.

The violence triggered chaos at a music festival in Canada’s largest city, as thousands of people scrambled for safety when the shots rang out on the night of July 11.

Toronto police chief Myron Demkiw said the investigation was ongoing and declined to comment on potential suspects, but his remarks appeared to rule out that the fatal victims were random bystanders.

He identified the victims as two males – aged 25 and 20 – who knew each other, and said that police “believe they were targeted.”

Demkiw did not comment on the identities of four other victims who were injured, including whether they had ties to those killed.

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow called the violence “disgusting” and said she had spoken to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government about taking action “to stem the flow of illegal American guns coming onto Toronto’s streets.”

Asked if there was any evidence the weapons used originated in the United States, Demkiw said: “We recover crime guns regularly and the vast majority, 85 to 90 per cent of them, when they can be traced, are traced to the United States of America.”

“That’s been the trend for many, many years in this city,” the police chief added.

President Donald Trump’s administration has portrayed Canada as a national security threat, arguing lax Canadian controls along the 8,890km northern US border allow for the easy flow of criminals and drugs like fentanyl.

Canadian officials reject those claims and have countered that gun violence in Canada is overwhelmingly linked to illegal weapons brought in from the United States, noting highly restrictive gun-purchasing rules in Canada. AFP