Toronto Mass Shooting
A 10-year-old girl from the GTA and an 18-year-old Toronto woman are the two people killed in the shooting rampage Sunday night on the Danforth, police say.

During a brief update Monday, police said of the 15 victims shot, eight were women. They range in age from 10 to 59 years old.

The 29-year-old gunman was also killed.

Police would not speculate on a motive for the shooting, including whether the gunman was deliberately targeting women.

"I can't speak to what was in the individual's mind," said lead investigator Det.-Sgt. Terry Browne.

He said police are in the process of getting a search warrant in relation to the deceased suspect.

Police would say nothing more about the shooter, as his death is now under the mandate of the police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit.

"He received a gunshot wound, but I'm not going to expand on that," Chief Mark Saunders said at the news conference.

The gunman has not been identified, nor have any of the victims.


Shortly after 10 p.m. Sunday, the gunman was walking along Danforth Ave. and fired shots at groups of people as they were enjoying a night out in the Greektown neighbourhood.

Police found the shooter on Bowden St., between Logan and Broadview Aves., and an exchange of gunfire took place, the SIU said.

The gunman fled the area and was found dead on Danforth Ave. It's not immediately clear if the man died from self-inflicted gunshots or from gunfire with police.

The gunman was randomly shooting like someone "in a video game," a witness told the Star.

"He was very relaxed, it was pretty disturbing," said Lenny Graf, who was with his wife and his son, 9, and daughter, 8.

Graf's family was having dinner at Christina's Restaurant when his kids asked to go play at the fountain in the Alexander the Great parkette on Logan Ave.

Graf went along to supervise and when he got outside, he heard loud popping sounds.

"I thought it was firecrackers, except that people started to run away, and crouch down and scream," Graf said.

He looked up and realized his son was crouched down near the fountain, about three metres (10 feet) from the shooter. He frantically looked for his daughter, who he later learned ran back into the restaurant.

"I crouched a bit, and then I thought, 'OK, what do I do? I crouch down, I get shot? I run, I get shot?' " Graf said.

The gunman, who was dressed in all black, was on the sidewalk on the north side of Danforth, near the fountain, Graf said.

"I saw him finish shooting some people and then walk away," Graf said.

Graf said the gunman continued walking west on the Danforth. He worried the shooter would come back, so he grabbed his son and took him around to the alley, and took the back door into The Friendly Greek.

There, he coincidentally found his wife and daughter - they had also run into the restaurant to escape.

Graf said he remembers seeing someone on the ground, then seeing paramedics and police arrive.

"I always thought if I was up against a guy shooting people, I would run up and grab the gun or something, but there was no way to do that," he said.

Jessica Young was visiting a co-worker at Second Cup when the shooting began.

"I heard a loud pop sound, I thought someone had maybe dropped something, but then I saw three of the customers that were sitting outside start running in a flurry," Young said.

"And they were just saying, get behind the counters and it registered that it was probably a gun sound. So I got down and then I looked to my side and I see the shooter through the window. He sees me or he sees my co-worker or someone, and shoots through the window."

Luckily, nobody in the coffee shop was hit. Young said the shooter was wearing a black baseball cap and black clothes with light skin.

"I was shaken, terrified I guess," she said. "It's not every day you almost get shot."

Androo Leipurts was bartending at Brass Taps pub when he heard a loud commotion and looked out the window to see people running. He saw a woman running, then fall to the ground.

"I essentially saw someone's daughter drop to the ground and roll," he said.

Danforth Ave. was still closed between Broadview and Pape Aves. as of noon, police said.

"It is a priority to us to release the scene, to allow Danforth to open up again, and to be open for business and to have traffic flow and all those things that have affected the community so that we can get things back to where they were," Saunders said.

The normally vibrant strip of the Danforth was eerily quiet in the morning, hours after the shooting. There were no parents walking their children to day camp, no businesses open and no one was grabbing pastries from the local coffee shops.

No one was allowed inside except for a few business owners escorted by police to grab belongings. All morning, residents stopped, stared, shook their heads and muttered words like "unbelievable" and "isn't this crazy?"

Neighbours traded information and shared shock over the shooting.

Percy Fuchs was at Pape and Danforth when it started. He said he heard "nine to 12" gunshots.

"And then you heard the screams," he said. "I've never heard screaming like that in all my life."

Manusos Kafkalas, who works at Logo Cafe, was outside, next to the patio smoking when he heard shots ring out.

"I turn around to see what's happening, and this guy looks right at us and starts shooting," Kafkalas said.

Kafkalas said he couldn't make out the features of the gunman, who was across the Danforth when he raised his gun and fired. But he heard the bullets whiz by and hit the wall behind him.

"The bullets went between me and my friends," he said. "We were lucky enough that no one was hit."

There were people lying on the pavement and Kafkalas rushed out into the street to help, but people were already administering first aid.

Simryn Fenby said her uncle was at Bowden St. and Danforth Ave. when the man he believed to be the shooter approached him.

"This guy was walking towards him and told him 'I'm not going to shoot you' and then told him to get out of his way," Fenby said. "And then he fired at two people coming out of 7Numbers."

Fenby's uncle ducked behind a car "and heard four to five shots."

Seeing gun violence break out along the Danforth, where Fenby grew up and where her family still lives, is "terrifying," she said.

"I just moved back from L.A. and it's just weird for me to feel more unsafe here than I ever did in L.A., which I never thought possible," Fenby said. "It's crazy that it's happening downtown; it shouldn't be happening anywhere . . . it's just kind of concerning to see."

On a normal Sunday night, Fenby said the street is filled with families and their pets, "going out to dinner and getting ice cream."

Andrew Mantzios had stopped for coffee with friends at Leonadis near the Alexander the Great statue.

At around 10 p.m. he was heading to his car to go home.

"As I was standing by the fountain I heard rapid gunfire and saw the gun discharge," he said Monday morning, still visibly shaken.

He turned and saw a skinny man dressed all in black firing shots into the crowd on the northeast corner of Logan and Danforth with a black gun like "he ones that you see on the movies."

Someone yelled out they had to get down.

"Everybody was falling down and somebody pushed me," he said. "I saw people being hit by bullets and falling outside the Leonidas Cafe."

Mantzios was eventually pulled into the cafe and last saw the man walking down Danforth towards Broadview "shooting at stores and passerby."

"He had his horrible look on his face like a dog baring his teeth," Mantzios said. "He was so full of hate."

Mayor John Tory, who headed to the shooting scene Sunday night, offered his condolences to families of the victims and urged residents not to jump to conclusions about what transpired and why.

In a statement, Tory called the shooting a "despicable act."

"On behalf of all Toronto residents, I am outraged that someone has unleashed such a terrible attack on our city and people innocently enjoying a Sunday evening," Tory said.

". . . While our city will always be resilient in the face of such attacks, it does not mean such a cowardly act committed against our residents is any less painful - this is an attack against innocent families and our entire city."

The Toronto Police Services Board thanked the first responders to the scene.