Bystander caught in crossfire of shootout near Toronto school

While no details have been confirmed, initial reports say two people were shot in the area of Keele Street and Donald Avenue.

An innocent bystander was caught in the crossfire when gunfire erupted in front of a high school in Toronto’s west end late Wednesday morning, police say.

The shooting happened near York Memorial Collegiate Institute in the vicinity of Keele Street and Donald Avenue just before noon.

Supt. Rich Harris told reporters at the scene that a woman in her 30s was driving along Keele Street when she was shot during an exchange of gunfire between two groups positioned on opposite sides of the road. Each of the groups consisted of three to four individuals, Harris said.

A 17-year-old boy was also shot.

Harris said that both victims sustained non-life-threatening injuries and were rushed to the hospital.

Harris said police are probing two crime scenes, one of which is located on school property.

“Whether or not any of the involved persons are affiliated with the school is still a matter of the investigation,” he said.

“It’s an unfortunate incident that this sort of nonsense is taking place broad daylight across from a school where it’s very heavy traffic. This is a main artery, Keele Street.”

Police were initially called to the area after receiving reports of multiple gunshots, and Harris said that emergency responders arrived within minutes and life-saving measures were rendered to one of the victims “almost immediately.”

The woman who was shot appeared to just be driving through the neighbourhood in a white Jeep at the time and doesn’t have any connection to what transpired, Harris said, adding that the other victim in the shooting was among the two groups that were exchanging gunfire.

A young person was arrested in a nearby alleyway and a gun and a loaded magazine have been recovered.

Police are still looking for six to eight additional suspects as well as at least one more firearm. Descriptive details for the wanted persons are not available at this time.

‘Shootings like this do have a ripple effect’

“I do understand that shootings like this do have a ripple effect, especially something like this happening so close to school on just day two of school,” Harris said.

“We are just as concerned as the area residents are but help does continue to pour in so far, we are getting some great witness information and hopefully this will be resolved in a short period of time.”

York Memorial Collegiate Institute at 1700 Keele St. was placed under a lockdown following the shooting.

Charles E. Webster Public School, Silverthorn Community School, and Keelesdale Junior Public School were also under hold and secure, the Toronto District School Board said.

All of those orders have since been lifted, the board said.

An area resident told CP24 that they heard two sets of shots fired.

“I heard shots. At first, it was about maybe five, six shots all one after the other. It stopped for maybe a second and it started all over again, maybe four, five shots. ... You could hear that they were gunshots,” the man said.

“Kids were running all over the place.”

Toronto police are now in the process of combing through evidence, including video footage from the area, and are urging anyone who saw or has information about what happened to contact them or Crime Stoppers anonymously.

“As always, we are asking anyone that was living around the area about shortly for noon, anywhere from 11:55 a.m. onwards, I would say, please review your dashcam footage, please look at your home video and please call 808-1200 at your convenience,” Harris said.

“No evidence is too small in order for us to piece this together and get it right and figure out what exactly transpired.”