© Tony Smyth/CBC NewsOne of the victims of the shooting on Danzig Street in Toronto's east end is rushed to hospital.
On Tuesday morning, at a news conference in a parking lot where one of the killings happened, police said they have evidence that links three homicides and a series of shootings to the gang known as the Galloway Boys.
"We have some information that the shooters in these incidents are vying for the leadership within the Galloway Boys group," said Det.-Sgt. Brett Nicol, who is leading the investigation into one of the slayings.
"These guys are involved in all sorts of criminality from drug dealing, weapons trafficking and prostitution," he said.
Police also revealed that the shooting death of D'Mitre Barnaby was a tragic case of mistaken identity.
Barnaby was found shot to death outside an apartment building on Dec. 30, 2011, just a few blocks from where the street party took place.
No charges have been laid in that slaying.
Police now say they believe Barnaby was the victim of mistaken identity: that the Galloway Boys mistook him for the real target.
According to Nicol there was an "amazing" resemblance between Barnaby and the intended victim who also lives in the neighbourhood. Police did not identify the intended target.
In the case of the slaying of Barnaby, police believe the Galloway Boys were trying to settle a score with another group known as the Orton Park Boys.
Police also provided a video compilation of the circumstances surrounding Barnaby's slaying.
The other two deaths linked to the gang took place during a street party near to the home base of the gang.
There was a wild shootout at a street party on Danzig Street that left a 14-year-old girl and a 23-year-old man dead.
In the street party shooting - the worst mass shooting ever in Canada's largest city - Shyanne Charles, 14, was killed along with Joshua Yasay, 23. Both were innocent bystanders who were just taking part in the July 16 street festival.
Twenty-three others were taken to hospital.
On Tuesday, police made a renewed appeal for witnesses, but at the same time gave the first real explanation for the reason behind the shootout: a turf battle.
Det.-Sgt. Peter Trimble said the wild night of violence started after one of the Galloway Boys tweeted that he was hosting the block party and was giving out free Hennessey cognac.
The tweet drew people from other parts of Scarborough, and Durham region, including some from the Malvern area, though Trimble said he didn't believe those people were members of the Malvern Crew.
The Malvern Crew is another Scarborough gang that is based north of the Galloway Boys.
Those who arrived from Malvern were confronted by the Galloway Boys who told them to leave. They did, but returned with more people and that's what led to the shootout, Trimble said.
Police now believe there were five or six shooters who let fly into the crowd or more than 100 people.
Trimble appealed for witnesses to come forward but admitted police are even having problems gathering statements.
"Some of the victims have not been co-operative," he said.
Police have recovered 25 shells and five firearms.
Two people have been charged in the wake of the Danzig Street shootings: Nahom Tsegazab, 19, with reckless discharge of a firearm and Shaquan Mesquito with uttering threats and several other gun-related charges. Police do not believe Mesquito was at the street party when the shooting erupted.
Tsegazab was described Tuesday as a Galloway Boys gang member. Trimble said his street name is "Gifted."
Forensic evidence also links the Galloway Boys to six other shootings that took place in Toronto between Sept. 4, 2011 and Aug. 10, 2012, police said.
The Galloway Boys - and their rivals the Malvern Crew - have been targeted at different times by police in an effort to smash the city's gangs and reduce the escalating violence in Toronto's Scarborough neighbourhood.
The previous investigations have led to arrests, charges and convictions but Nicol said Tuesday that many of the gang members have now passed through the justice system and are back on the streets.
Some of the older gang members are now acting as "mentors" to the younger recruits, he said.
...of how helpless the justice system seems to be at coping with just routine criminal activity.
The police are prepared to look no farther than these young men (and women?) and their older buddies.
But if they are involved in drug and weapons trafficking, those products are probably coming from suppliers outside those neighborhoods, and possibly outside that city or even that country. Until those suppliers are shut down, or those kids can find better-paying jobs elsewhere, those kids will risk their lives to stay alive by working as criminals.
Instead, the police are going to level all their terrorism on those kids and the neighborhoods they live in. If enough people understood the real dynamics of the situation, they would know better than to support such a strategy. All it will tend to do is pump up the violence.