The wounding of a teenager on a subway platform brought the city’s gun problem to the heart of downtown in the middle of a business day Thursday.
While passing office workers gawked, heavily armed Emergency Task Force officers charged down the steps of the Osgoode subway station.
Immediately after the morning shooting, police officers responding to several 9-1-1 calls from Osgoode station found a 19-year-old man collapsed on the mezzanine, shot in the stomach and thigh. The victim was taken to St. Michael’s Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
As of last night, police continued to search for one suspect, described as male, black, between six-foot and six-foot-two and about 185 pounds.
The suspect was last seen wearing black pants, a black parka with a fur-trimmed hood, and a black Blue Jays ball cap bearing the team’s new logo.
Police said at least three shots were fired on the platform and the fight continued to the mezzanine level before the victim collapsed.
Calling Thursday’s subway shooting “outrageous” and shocking, Toronto police Chief Bill Blair said the offenders were downright dumb to spar in such an open, heavily surveilled public space.
“It’s a stupid place to commit such a crime, not only because they’re more likely to be caught but because it endangers a lot of people,” Blair said.
