It looks like there’s been a mass shooting in Toronto this evening in the Riverdale neighborhood. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/danforth-logan-shooting-1.4757409/ At least 9 people shot, no idea of their status, who did it, or why.
Those Dopers who live there—thinking mainly of Muffin, but I’m sure there are others—please check in and let us know you are OK.
Thanks.
The sources I saw when I just Googled this (CNN and MSNBC are not covering it, not yet) said it was in a neighborhood called “Greektown”. Are they in the same area? I’ve never been to Toronto.
They also said that the shooter was dead but no information on anyone else.
No worries on Muffin; he’s about 1200 miles away, in Thunder Bay.
I’m a former Torontonian, but you can never forget the city, if you grew up in it, as I did. Greektown (and Riverdale) is on the east side of the Don Valley. News reports indicate that the shooting took place around Danforth and Logan, which would place it squarely in both neighbourhoods.
I will stay tuned. That was one of my favourite Toronto neighbourhoods; I enjoyed the many Greek restaurants there.
Latest is: Young woman dead, shooter dead, 13 others injured:
My aunt, her partner, and my cousins live in that exact neighbourhood. I’m worried.
I also have many friends in Toronto, though I don’t know if any of them live in the area.
Here’s hoping that they are all well, and their friends, too. Doesn’t Sunspace live in Toronto? Anybody know what neighborhood?
We always look up to Canada as an oasis of comparative sanity. It makes it even sadder to hear of events like this. I hope there won’t be more.
A 10-year-old girl has also died, sadly.
So sad, you guys. I think of Canada as our slightly saner cousins and neighbors.
I am far from that area, in the city of Peterborough. But the news reports mentioned two restaurants. I have eaten at both of them. 
I have been by the area many times. I have put it into my cartoons even.
There is no information released yet on the motive of the shooter. I suspect it is NOT terrorism, simply because no-one has publically claimed responsibility for it. I keep thinking about that guy who simply snapped one day and beheaded someone on a bus in Saskatchewan.
The guy didn’t have an assault rifle. Soon anyone will be able to downloads plans to build their own.
The news the other morning said that Montreal had recorded its 29th homicide for 2018. This one was in a fist fight!
I have family living a block from there. I was shocked to see this news, of course. I’ve walked these spots numerous times with my toddler grandsons. Fortunately they are away on holiday in Iceland currently. Still gives me a shiver of fear to think about it.
Its such a lovely neighbourhood, has a real village feel. I’m left stunned, like everyone else.
My aunt and her family are all right. Though they were close to the crime scene, and did hear the gunshots and chaos, which must’ve been pretty scary.
I’ve enjoyed spending time in that neighbourhood with family and friends. I hope the area will be okay.
Reese Fallon was the 18 year old woman who died.
The family of the 10 year old girl didn’t want her name released.
So sorry Toronto.
I don’t live in that area (or even in the city any more) but this is much too close to home in many ways. I have family in that immediate area and know it well, and I just found out that Reese was a classmate of their daughter. It’s not like this is a small town where everyone has some connection to everyone else – there are six and a half million people in the Greater Toronto Area.
You have always been able to download plans to build your own assault rifle. How they’re made is hardly a secret. Actually MAKING a working assault rifle without having a factory and the know-how to do it is a rather significant challenge. A 3D printer isn’t going to get you there.
Mental illness, not terrorism:
Police have not announced a motive and expressly have not yet ruled out the possibility of terrorism. Presumably they’re looking into his past and his recent activities.
Hussain’s family’s statement seems advisedly non-specific; the fact that they cite the symptom of psychosis but not a diagnosed mental disorder (other than depression) causes me to wonder whether he actually had one. We may get more corroboration from the authorities in due course, though, certainly.
Toronto is relatively safe in comparison to US cities. Its homicide rate is about half of New York’s and property crime is roughly equal. It has much more organized crime than American cities though. That’s always a double-edged sword. It keeps the gang violence that we see in American cities at a much lower level due to the stronger hierarchies of the criminal organizations, but makes them much more difficult to prosecute. In the US, we decided that organized crime was a problem in the 60s and 70s and basically destroyed it. That led to a lot of smaller groupings of criminals and street gangs to form and fight over turf and drug supplies and much of our urban violence in the 80s and 90s and continuing until today is a result of that very distributed model of crime. Canada took more of an ‘it’s really hard to fight organized crime, so just keep it contained’ policing and justice strategy and that has meant that violence is much lower, but more sophisticated crimes like money-laundering, car theft rings and counterfeiting are more commonplace.
I’d have to ask what that claim is based on.