Toronto Police Services responded to a shooting in the Jane and Finch area. (COURTESY SCOTT DAVIDSON WIKIMEDIA)
By Samantha Martin
The search for answers continued Tuesday after a young man was gunned down in his home at a Toronto Community Housing complex near Jane and Finch.
Police officers from 31 Division responded to the shooting on 40 Turf Dr. just after 10:30 p.m. Monday night.
The victim was found with a gunshot wound and had no vital signs; he was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
It is the city’s sixth homicide of the year and the third murder of a person under the age of 16 in four weeks. All of them took place on Toronto Community Housing properties.
Toronto Police Services Constable Wendy Drummond said at this time police are not releasing any more information about Monday night’s murder.
Drummond said the police are using all resources they have to keep underprivileged areas safe.
“We have a number of resources throughout Toronto that we look at to determine where we deploy our officers,” said Drummond. “We use our resources to be most beneficial.”
York West city councilor Anthony Perruzza said a murder of any kind is tragic, but especially hard when children are involved.
Perruzza said the city needs to work on gun control, as there are too many weapons on Toronto streets.
“There is a large amount of guns out there,” said Perruzza. “We need to be more diligent in minimizing the number of weapons that are out there.”
Perruzza said Toronto Community Housing is always a focus of his, and each individual property has its own security guards and surveillance systems. He said the city should focus more on beneficial youth development.
“We need to focus on youth services,” said Perruzza. “Services such as job creation and education.”
Police are still trying to determine whether it was accidental or intentional.