Oh Man... I was there at 8:45 and about a block of Yonge Street were still blocked out by police - from pizza pizza to Levi's. There were three ambulances and about 8 police cars there... the atmosphere wasn't too bad since the officers were joking and chating w/ each other... Holy moly, wot a day.
TheStar.com - Boxing Day horror downtown
Shots rang out on busy Toronto streets crowded with Boxing Day shoppers today, killing one person and wounding seven others.
The first shots were apparently fired around 5:30 p.m. from a vehicle driving north on Yonge St. near Gerrard St., severely wounding one woman in the head. She was in the doorway of a Foot Locker store.
Police received calls within minutes about other shooting victims — including one in the Delta Chelsea hotel, one at a Pizza Pizza near Yonge and Gould St., a second person in the doorway of the Foot Locker and one at a Red Lobster restaurant.
Police have two men in custody in connection with the shootings. They were apprehended at the Castle Frank subway station. At least one firearm was seized, police said.
Police did not immediately say if the victims were targeted or if they were injured by random gunfire.
The woman with the head wound who was shot at the Foot Locker has died. Two of the others shot are in critical condition at St. Michael’s hospital. One victim walked into Mt. Sinai hospital.
The wounded reportedly include a 16-year-old boy, and others appeared to be in their late teens or early twenties. One of the victims who suffered a minor injury was an off-duty police officer.
Wendy Perry and her husband were staying at the Delta Chelsea hotel when the violence erupted.
They could see the area streets from the balcony of their hotel room.
She said she heard a number of shots go off and the sound of a car squealing away.
"We saw people racing out of stores," she said. "I thought it was fireworks."
One witness, a man in his twenties who would only identify himself as Vikram, said he saw two men in a BMW leaning out the windows and firing guns.
“People were screaming,” he said. “Everywhere in the shop they were down on the floor.”
An employee with Sam the Record Man said people were lying out in the street and “not doing too well.”
Holiday shoppers were just wrapping up the last of their Boxing Day purchases when the violence erupted.
Police received several calls asking for help controlling the frightened shoppers crowded into nearby stores such as Sam the Record Man, HMV and Future Shop.
After the shootings, much of the normally bustling shopping district around the Eaton Centre was blocked off with police tape.
Two male suspects, including a teenager, were arrested soon after at a subway station a short distance from the scene, and at least one firearm was seized, police said.
Police Chief Bill Blair said two men who were standing on the street opened fire for reasons that were not immediately clear. He did not say if the two were shooting at each other or targeting people in the crowd.
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