Gun violence has moved from the United States to Canada and on Sunday evening, it took two innocent lives in a busy avenue of Toronto. One of the dead was a 10-year-old girl and the other an 18-year-old woman. More than a dozen others suffered injuries in the Greektown district attack. This was confirmed by Toronto police chief Mark Saunders. The gunman had on dark clothes and a dark cap.
He also had a shoulder bag from which he pulled out the weapon. It was a handgun.
BBC reports that the attack was in a place that is popular with the locals and is usually busy in the evenings. The people in a nearby café and on the street were hurt when they came in the line of fire of the gunman.
Motive of the shooting is unknown
There was an exchange of gunfire between the suspect and the police and his body was discovered nearby but the motive of the attack is shrouded in mystery. The police identified the suspect as 29-year-old Faisal Hussain, Reuters reported today (July 24). There is some doubt about how he died.
Did he fall to police gunfire or did he take his own life?
The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) which is responsible to investigate deaths involving the police said that the gunman was tracked by officers to an area near the café. Subsequently, there was more firing, the man fled from the scene and his body was discovered some distance away.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has expressed his sympathies to victims of the gun violence as well as to the city. Toronto Mayor John Tory has, on his part, condemned the incident.
Terrorism has not been ruled out
The tragic incident happened at night in Toronto’s east end. From available information, it seems the gunman had targeted people inside a restaurant or a shop.
Sky News adds that according to the police chief, terrorism could be a possible motive. "We are looking at all possible motives... and not closing any doors," is how he put it. Nevertheless, Reuters noted that Hussain's family said he “had severe mental health challenges, struggling with psychosis and depression his entire life.”
In the opinion of Toronto councilor Paula Fletcher, the man who committed the crime was "disturbed." She has also added that it was not any gang violence. Toronto police are alive to the problem of an increase in incidents of gun violence. This was summed up by the Mayor when he said, - "guns are too readily available to too many people."
Other countries have tight gun control and, for example, Japan has almost zero gun violence crimes.
Incidentally, this is not the first time Toronto has faced a mass killing. A few months ago, a man drove a van into pedestrians on a pavement and left 10 people dead with another 14 injured.